3 ms·

Plus, it's a complete aerial surveillance network for wildnerness. What it doesn't prevent in fires it makes up for in policing and governance. Fire marshalls a

Plus, it's a complete aerial surveillance network for wildnerness. What it doesn't prevent in fires it makes up for in policing and governance. Fire marshalls and fire codes have been used for warrantless searches on activists for decades because they have fewer restrictions than police. I once met an environmental investigator in government who was regularly brought in by regional police to do drone flyovers with FLIR/IR looking for grow ops and do paralell construction when they were more illegal as well. Wildfire suppression is a super interesting use case for drones, and one that could scale to much larger UAVs, though the business case for them is plausibly closer to the more general enforcement case.

Accujack 5y ago
It's a nice effort, but not terribly practical. They can't have the drones performing surveillance over wild lands for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that a crashed drone could start a fire. They also make noise that can disturb wildlife and humans enjoying the wilderness. Plus, they're a ready made platform for dropping stuff from the drone, so immediate military and terrorist uses.
- wildzzz 5y ago
  High altitude, long endurance drones with long range IR sensors to detect flames. Use solar panels and high power density batteries and it could fly around for months. BAE has a HALE UAV that can run for a whole year at high altitudes (PHASA-35). Use a wide angle IR camera for course detection and a zoom camera for identification. Images and location telemeters down to forest ranger base stations. It wouldn't be cheap but at least officials could react appropriately before the fire gets out of control. You could still have these small water drones to keep fires in check before real firefighters can manage it on the ground. You could even cheap out a little on the year long flight UAVs and just run them continuously during the dry season.
  - danuker 5y ago
    > Use solar panels I think that's a good idea, since in general fires start when the sun shines.
svnt 5y ago
The drones don’t fly unless there is a fire, otherwise the drones become a major fire risk, statistically.
- dragonsky67 5y ago
  base the drones on an airship that can loiter for days/weeks. airship could also assist in surveillance.

Accujack 5y ago

It's a nice effort, but not terribly practical. They can't have the drones performing surveillance over wild lands for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that a crashed drone could start a fire. They also make noise that can disturb wildlife and humans enjoying the wilderness. Plus, they're a ready made platform for dropping stuff from the drone, so immediate military and terrorist uses.

wildzzz 5y ago
High altitude, long endurance drones with long range IR sensors to detect flames. Use solar panels and high power density batteries and it could fly around for months. BAE has a HALE UAV that can run for a whole year at high altitudes (PHASA-35). Use a wide angle IR camera for course detection and a zoom camera for identification. Images and location telemeters down to forest ranger base stations. It wouldn't be cheap but at least officials could react appropriately before the fire gets out of control. You could still have these small water drones to keep fires in check before real firefighters can manage it on the ground. You could even cheap out a little on the year long flight UAVs and just run them continuously during the dry season.
- danuker 5y ago
  > Use solar panels I think that's a good idea, since in general fires start when the sun shines.

svnt 5y ago

The drones don’t fly unless there is a fire, otherwise the drones become a major fire risk, statistically.

dragonsky67 5y ago
base the drones on an airship that can loiter for days/weeks. airship could also assist in surveillance.