Recent huge technological development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can provide breakthrough means of fighting wildland fires. We propose an innovative forest firefighting system based on the use of a swarm of hundreds of UAVs able to generate a continuous flow of extinguishing liquid on the fire front, simulating the rain effect. Automatic battery replacement and refilling of the extinguishing liquid ensure the continuity of the action. We demonstrate the validity of the approach first computing the critical water flow rate according to the main factors involved in the evolution of a fire, then estimating the number of linear meters of active fire front that can be extinguished depending on the number of drones available and the amount of extinguishing fluid carried. A fire propagation cellular automata model is also employed to study the evolution of the fire. The results suggest that the proposed system can successfully integrate, or in some cases completely replace, current forest firefighting techniques.
翻译:最近无人驾驶航空飞行器(无人驾驶飞行器)的大规模技术发展可以提供突破性灭火的手段。我们提出一个创新的森林消防系统,其基础是使用成群成群的无人驾驶飞行器,能够在防火前产生连续的灭火器液体流,模拟雨水效应。自动更换电池和再填充灭火器液体可以确保行动的连续性。我们展示了这种方法的有效性,首先根据火灾演化中涉及的主要因素计算关键水流率,然后根据现有无人驾驶飞机的数量和所运载的灭火液体的数量估算可扑灭的活跃火前线性火线性米数。还采用了防火蜂窝自动模型来研究火灾的演变情况。结果显示,拟议的系统可以成功地整合或在某些情况下完全取代目前的森林消防技术。