Virginia Tech joins global team for award-winning research using firefighting drones
A global group of researchers bring together strong research and best practices in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in outdoor firefighting.
Drones are becoming a common tool used by firefighters. In addition to dousing flames from the air, drones, also known as unmanned aerial systems (UAS), support other critical operations such as finding hotspots, relaying communications across large areas, or assisting with post-fire analysis.
Four Virginia Tech researchers have joined a group of 11 other colleagues from around the world to investigate the outcomes of drone firefighting use, particularly in large outdoor fires. Their work earned the 2024 Jack Bono Award for Engineering Communication from the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), the world’s leading professional society for fire protection and fire safety engineering.
Teaming up across the world
The study combines the efforts of engineers, UAS experts, fire and combustion experts, project managers and government contributors. They combined the resources of companies, universities, and drone facilities to create a well-informed guide for best practices when using drones to fight fires.
Brian Lattimer, department head and the Nicholas and Rebecca Des Champs Chair in Virginia Tech's Department of Mechanical Engineering, was lead author on the research, published in the SFPE journal.
“The number of contributors and amount of information we were comparing was a pretty monumental undertaking,” said Lattimer. “Luckily, most of this group was familiar through society meetings, and we found common interest in defining the current state and challenges in using this technology for emergency applications. As we collaborated, the diverse expertise of the group provided a unique perspective and a paper emerged that provided a viewpoint on this topic not typically covered in the literature.”
The global group combined its work into a paper that discussed the challenges facing drone use in firefighting and limiting their use in large outdoor fire management. This included an overview of UAS currently in use combined with guides and standards that have emerged to support their use in the field.
According to the paper, one of the main issues with these standards is the way in which they differ across the world. UAS is still a relatively new technology, and setting regulations has not kept pace with its adoption. This has resulted in regulations set by bodies as large as national governments or as small as local authorities.
While the paper does not seek to take the place of authorities, it does provide a rich body of resources that might harmonize the decisions made by those authorities in the area of UAS firefighting. It may also provide valuable information for which system might work best, cost considerations for purchasing, and different tasks that can be performed by existing technologies. Topics included in the publication include
- Common types of UAS used in firefighting
- Takeoff weight and endurance time of UAS and technical challenges when used in firefighting applications
- Cost of operation
- Impact on a UAS from a live fire
- Challenges with communicating with a UAS
- Use in suppressing a fire, including known extinguishing materials
- Standards used across the world
- Training of operators
With offices in Virginia Tech’s Corporate Research Center and a local testing facility at Kentland Farm in Blacksburg, the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership leverages operational capability, aviation expertise, and robust research resources to take on the most pressing technical and operational challenges in UAS integration. Its work on projects that contribute to drone integration efforts brought critical expertise to this project.
"As an FAA-designated test site, we've had a front row seat for the emergence of numerous applications for drones over the last decade, and this is one that powerfully demonstrates their value," said Tombo Jones, the partnership's director. "Using drones for firefighting makes a dangerous job safer for the human pilots and firefighters who selflessly assume these roles. We were proud to be part of a project that we hope will reduce barriers to deploying these systems and extend their benefits to as many people as possible."
Roster rundown
The Virginia Tech cohort includes
- Peter Frank and Tombo Jones, Mid Atlantic Aviation Partnership
- Kevin Kochersberger, professor and unmanned aerial vehicle researcher in mechanical engineering
- Brian Lattimer, mechanical engineering department head, the Nicholas and Rebecca Des Champs Chair, and a fire researcher
Joining their Virginia Tech colleagues in the research are
- Eduard Angelats, geomatics researcher, Centre de Tecnologic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Spain
- Conrad Delgado, project manager for CATUAV, Spain
- Michael A. Delichatsios, visiting professor and fire science researcher, Northeastern University, Boston
- Xinyan Huang, associate professor and deputy director of the Research Centre for Fire Safety Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- Yiannis A. Levendis, combustion and fire researcher, Distinguished Professor, Northeastern University, Boston
- Samuel Manzello, Visiting Professor, Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, Japan and Reax Engineering, USA
- David Martin, project manager, Pau Costa Foundation, Spain
- Sara McAllister, research mechanical engineer for the U.S. Forest Service
- Jordi Salvador Bernadi, chief technology officer, CATUAV, Spain
- Sayaka Suzuki, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
More about Lattimer's fire safety research
More about Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership
Original study: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-023-01437-0
