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EBERSWALDE, Germany (AP) — A company that specializes in early wildfire detection has developed a new, AI-based drone it says will help speed up the detection, location and monitoring of fires.
The Silvaguard drone by Dryard Networks was presented Thursday in Eberswalde outside of Berlin as wildfires driven by extreme heat and climate change are becoming a more common, often deadly phenomenon around the globe.
The drone will deliver infrared images, among other things, and works in combination with a fire detection system that the company developed earlier and that's already being used in several countries. The fire detection system, called Silvanet, is designed to detect wildfires at the smoldering stage using solar-powered gas sensors connected via a wireless network.
Each gas sensor can protect an area the size of a football field and be attached to a tree. The plan is that once Silvanet detects a fire, it will trigger a nearby Silvaguard drone to fly to the location and provide detailed images.
“Today we saw a combination of Silvanet — the solar powered gas sensors that detected the fire within minutes — with Silvaguard, the first prototype of an autonomous, an AI enabled drone that we dispatched in response to a fire," said Carsten Brinkschulte, the CEO and co-founder, Dryad Networks.
The drone “flew autonomously to the location of the sensor, detecting the fire, and delivered overhead infrared and optical video from the point of fire,” he said of the newly developed drone.
The company is still waiting to get the go-ahead for the commercial use of Silvaguard drone from authorities.
The information about the fire, including geographic coordinates, video and infrared images, will then be sent to the firefighters who will then know where the fire is spreading and how big it is, which will help them know how many firefighters need to be deployed.
“When it comes to wildfires, time is of the essence, you cannot be fast enough," Brinkschulte said.
