Cooperative forest fire surveillance using a team of small unmanned air vehicles

The objective of this paper is to explore the feasibility of using multiple low-altitude, short endurance (LASE) unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) to cooperatively monitor and track the propagation of large forest fires. A real-time algorithm for tracking the perimeter of a fire with an on-board infrared sensor is developed. Using this algorithm, we develop a decentralized multiple-UAV approach to monitoring the perimeter of the fire. The UAVs are assumed to have limited communication and sensing range. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated in simulation using a 6 DOF dynamic model for the UAV and numerical propagation model for the forest fire. Salient features of the approach include the ability to monitor a changing fire perimeter, the ability to systematically add and remove UAVs from the team, and the ability to supply time-critical information to forest fire fighters.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: IJSYSC
• Authors: David W. Casbeer, Derek B. Kingston, Randal W. Beard, Timothy W. McLain
• Keywords: Forest Fire, IJSYSC 2006, Large Forest Fires, UAVs