Researchers in Finland are developing drones with AI technology to detect small forest fires early in order to prevent them from progressing.
“Information on current forest fires is already available using satellites, but there are no efficient methods to quickly detect small and recently started forest fires and monitor the fire in real time,” according to the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The test project, known as the FireMan project, will run from 2022 to 2024.
“Drones can help us in providing real-time information on how the fire front is progressing, and how high and hot the flames are,” stated Eija Honkavaara of the National Land Survey of Finland (NLS), who is leading the project. “We’re developing methods to locate a swarm of drones and produce remote sensing data in real time. In addition, we’re developing sensor technology that surpasses the ability of the human eye in terms of seeing through smoke.”
In 2021, more than half a million hectares of forest burned down in Europe, the worst year on record, according to NLS. Forest fires are expected to continue to increase due to global warming.
