[Paper Review] Unmanned Aerial Systems for Wildland and Forest Fires: Sensing, Perception, Cooperation and Assistance

Moulay A. Akhloufi, Nicolas Castro+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Apr 28, 2020

Fire effects on ecosystemsEnvironmental Science4 citations

TL;DR

This paper reviews Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for wildland fire management, focusing on sensing, perception, coordination, and integration with Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV). It proposes UAS as a low-cost, maneuverable solution for real-time fire detection, characterization, and coordination across large-scale wildfire areas, enhancing situational awareness and response efficiency.

ABSTRACT

Wildfires represent an important natural risk causing economic losses, human death and important environmental damage. In recent years, we witness an increase in fire intensity and frequency. Research has been conducted towards the development of dedicated solutions for wildland and forest fire assistance and fighting. Systems were proposed for the remote detection and tracking of fires. These systems have shown improvements in the area of efficient data collection and fire characterization within small scale environments. However, wildfires cover large areas making some of the proposed ground-based systems unsuitable for optimal coverage. To tackle this limitation, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) were proposed. UAS have proven to be useful due to their maneuverability, allowing for the implementation of remote sensing, allocation strategies and task planning. They can provide a low-cost alternative for the prevention, detection and real-time support of firefighting. In this paper we review previous work related to the use of UAS in wildfires. Onboard sensor instruments, fire perception algorithms and coordination strategies are considered. In addition, we present some of the recent frameworks proposing the use of both aerial vehicles and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UV) for a more efficient wildland firefighting strategy at a larger scale.

Motivation & Objective

• Address the growing challenge of increasing wildfire frequency and intensity by improving detection and response systems.
• Overcome limitations of ground-based systems in covering large, remote wildfire areas.
• Develop UAS-based solutions for remote sensing, fire perception, and task planning in real-time wildfire operations.
• Integrate UAS with Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) to enhance large-scale firefighting effectiveness.
• Advance coordination strategies for aerial and ground UAS to improve situational awareness and operational efficiency.

Proposed method

• Utilize onboard sensors on UAS for real-time data collection on thermal, visual, and infrared signatures of wildfires.
• Implement fire perception algorithms to detect and characterize active fires using multi-spectral and thermal imaging data.
• Apply task planning and allocation strategies to optimize UAS flight paths and sensor coverage across large fire zones.
• Develop coordination frameworks enabling communication and task sharing between UAS and UGV platforms.
• Integrate aerial and ground UAS systems to enable complementary sensing and response actions in complex terrain.
• Leverage UAS maneuverability to access hazardous or inaccessible areas for fire monitoring and data acquisition.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How can UAS improve fire detection and characterization in large-scale wildland fires compared to ground-based systems?
• RQ2 What sensing and perception techniques enable accurate real-time identification of fire fronts and hotspots using UAS?
• RQ3 How can coordination strategies between multiple UAS and UGVs enhance situational awareness during wildfire response?
• RQ4 What role do task planning and allocation algorithms play in optimizing UAS coverage and response efficiency?
• RQ5 How can integrated aerial and ground UAS systems improve overall firefighting effectiveness in complex environments?

Key findings

• UAS provide a low-cost, scalable alternative for wildfire monitoring due to their high maneuverability and ability to access remote or hazardous areas.
• Onboard sensing systems, particularly thermal and multi-spectral imaging, significantly improve early fire detection and real-time characterization.
• Perception algorithms enable accurate identification of fire fronts and hotspots, supporting timely decision-making by emergency responders.
• Coordination frameworks between UAS and UGVs enhance operational coverage and situational awareness during large-scale wildfire events.
• Integrated aerial and ground UAS systems demonstrate improved response efficiency and data collection across complex, large-area fire environments.
• Task planning and allocation strategies optimize UAS flight paths, increasing sensor coverage and reducing response time in dynamic fire conditions.