UAS-Rx interface for mission planning, fire tracking, fire ignition, and real-time updating

Abstract

This paper presents the development of an interface for small Unmanned Aerial Systems to allow the deployment of ignition spheres at a prescribed fire, real-time fire modeling, and user updates to the automated fire model. Current systems are limited to fire monitoring or modeling, generally rely on a desktop computer, and do not allow updates to the model nor parameter adjustments in the field. The novelty in the current approach is in enabling user control of all aspects of flight, including take-off, waypoint navigation, payload delivery, and landing from the interface while also allowing fire modeling and incorporating this information into the flight planning to increase safety and effectiveness of the vehicle. This system will allow fire experts to reach previously inaccessible terrain to ignite controlled burns, model fire progression through novel terrain and vegetation to improve current models, and allow team members to maintain higher levels of situation awareness through the ability to project fire spread at future times. Initial user testing at a 40 acre prescribed burn shows that the model is considerably more accurate with user corrections, and that even half the user corrections dramatically reduced the distance between the projected and actual fire lines. Future tests are planned with more users in challenging terrain to provide new information to the fire management communities.