Fire Suppression and Ignition with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Authors

Carrick Detweiler, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Sebastian Elbaum, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
James Higgins, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Christian Laney, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Craig Allen, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Dirac L. Twidwell Jr, University of Nebraska‐LincolnFollow
Evan Michale Beachly, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

6-29-2021

Citation

United States patent, Patent No. US 11,045,672 B2

Comments

United States government work

Abstract

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be configured for fire suppression and ignition. In some examples, the UAV includes an aerial propulsion system, an ignition system, and a control system. The ignition system includes a container of delayed-ignition balls and a dropper configured by virtue of one or more motors to actuate and drop the delayed-ignition balls. The control system is configured to cause the UAV to fly to a site of a prescribed burn and, while flying over the site of the prescribed burn, actuate one or more of the delayed-ignition balls. After actuating the one or more delayed-ignition balls, the UAV drops the actuated one or more delayed-ignition balls from the UAV onto the site of the prescribed burn.