4F (Flying Forest Fires Fighting) System

The objective of the solution is to monitor Earth Observation data for detection/measurement purposes, before, during and after a forest fire. The measured parameters are related to the climate changes and their level of correlation to the forest fire management parameters and procedures.

The proposed drone-based sensor system for forest fires monitoring applicable at prevention, detection and restoration phases of wildfires consists of:

  • communication gateway mounted on a drone;
  • sensors for measuring air temperature, humidity and particle matters mounted on a drone;
  • sensors for measuring soil (or biomass) moisture and temperature, installed in forests;
  • IoT software platform for sensor data collection and processing and data visualization, intended for forest fire risk analyses and management at prevention, detection and restoration phases.

Technical challenges to the mobile gateway installed at small drone

Development of a communication solution with mobile (dynamic) gateway installed on a drone.

Deployment of multiple sensors, modules, powerful battery in a compact design with balanced weight.

Reliable fixing of the gateway to a small drone without significantly impairing its flight characteristics.

Reliable communications - LoRa, mobile and GPS. Further development and optimization of the specially developed communication protocols and approaches.

Study of different antennas depending on the mission, speed and altitude of the drone flight.

Technical challenges to the soil moisture and temperature sensor

Minimum power consumption for measurement and communication.

Using of latest generation microcontroller and LoRa radio module with minimal energy consumption.

Optimal use of the capacity of the power supply battery.

Ensuring communication exchange between a sensor and a gateway at drone certain flying speed.

Integrating antenna with optimal radiation patterns.

Measurement of moisture and temperature of soil and biomass at optimal ratio of accuracy / energy consumption.

  • The core of the project is a technology
    for gathering data from sensors
    that are difficult and even impossible to access in other way
  • Our use case is forest fire monitoring at phases of prevention,
    detection and restoration
  • Our technology approach is scalable, flexible and can be useful
    for other application

Project Partners
The research and development leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Program "UFO project" under UFO Innovation Support Contract 21-ADMIN-CS-449
The UFO project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No873411.