As California\u2019s fire season stretches nearly year-round, Cal Fire is testing a new tool that could help firefighters attack wildfires without requiring an operator on the ground: fully autonomous drones designed for fire suppression and support.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, July 15, Cal Fire partnered with a third-party nonprofit called Firewerx and a team of engineers to field test the drones, which are being built by Seneca. <\/p>\n
Deputy Chief Jack Worden of Cal Fire\u2019s Fire Innovation Unit said the goal is to help firefighters who often battle flames with backpack pumps and hand tools. <\/p>\n
\u201c(Firefighters) go out there with the backpack pumps and the brooms and the shovels and they can put it out really fast,\u201d Worden said. \u201cThe Fire Innovation Unit is trying to force multiply that. Take some of the weight off their backs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The drones fly in packs of five. <\/p>\n
Each drone weighs about 400 pounds and is built out of carbon fiber. <\/p>\n
One drone can carry roughly 20 gallons of water and when combined with the others can turn into about 500 to 1,000 gallons of foam when mixed with firefighting concentrate. <\/p>\n
Cal Fire officials and engineers say the drones could also reach steep terrain that may be difficult to access on foot.<\/p>\n
Stuart Landesberg, founder and CEO of Seneca, said the drones are being developed to provide multiple capabilities to firefighters. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to provide them with a set of tools, be it heavy lift capability, be it fire suppression capability, be it situational awareness capability, be it autonomy and nighttime capabilities,\u201d Landesberg said. \u201cWe want to give them a full toolbox so that the professionals can do what they do best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landesberg said field testing helps the company learn directly from firefighters and incorporate their experience into the drones\u2019 autonomous systems. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we loved learning when out there in the field is what are the firefighting techniques that folks over their decades of experience know to be the most successful?\u201d he said. \u201cAnd how can we apply those to our algorithms, our autonomy software and make those our default patterns?\u201d<\/p>\n
Worden said the push for new technology is driven by the needs of Californians. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a demand for the state of California and for the people that live here that we have to move forward,\u201d he said. \u201cWe’re the world’s largest fire department and we need to be the leaders in technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
A price tag for the drones was not available because the project is still in the early stages and costs are not yet known. <\/p>\n
The field test was funded through a grant program, with FireWERX involved in the partnership.<\/p>\n
Landesberg said Seneca\u2019s focus is on how to bring the most capable technologies to firefighters for the lowest price possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As California\u2019s fire season stretches nearly year-round, Cal Fire is testing a new tool that could help firefighters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-404937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}