Wildfire Prediction and Mitigation System using Drones

Background:

In high-risk environments, wildfires can occur quickly and without warning. There is a need to monitor these areas, but many are difficult to access and traverse, and there is a limited amount of personnel capable of repeatedly surveying these areas. Therefore, we plan to design a UAV system capable of monitoring and navigating these high-risk locales. In the case of a fire, the UAV will be able to recognize it and take mitigating action, as well as interface with other systems with the data it has received.

Mission Statement:

We plan to demonstrate a prototype drone to show the capabilities of this system. The demo will take place over a 50x50 feet area on a field with a red square, representing a fire. On the sheet, a small lit candle will be placed randomly. The drone, from a designated starting point, will be tasked to fly to the sheet, locate and mitigate the fire. To do this, it will fly at a height of 8 feet from the starting point to the designated area. Once it reaches there, it will survey the area until the camera identifies the square.

It will then either:

Perform mitigation on the square, then continue to survey the area, returning home on completion.
Mark the location. Once the survey is finished, the drone will return home, before being updated with the mitigation procedure. It will then return to the square and perform mitigation.

Goals and Objectives:

Q1 Goal:
- Have initial drone and software design with all parts chosen.
Q1 Objectives:
- Have a general system outline. (Week 5)
- Have all Component Selected (Week 7)
- Have payload design mechanism complete. (Week 8)
- Code Design finished (Week 10)
- Create bill of materials (Week 10)
Q2 Goal:
- Drone can survey an area, identify the fire (candle), then drop payload (water balloon)
Q2 Objectives:
- Complete Drone Manufacturing (Week 3)
- Payload Manufacturing (Week 5)
- Initial Software implementation (Week 6)
- All Software application working (Week 7)
- Payload, Drone and Software fully Integrated (Week 8)
- Drone is able to complete all tasks autonomously (Week 9)
- Demo flight complete (Finals Week)