Aerial Wild Firefighting System

Oxford Aerospace Research Centre

RESEARCH

Aerial Wild Firefighting System (AWFS)

AWFS

Specialist aerial systems for wild fire-fighting, surveillance and search & rescue operations.

SolarLight Surveillance Element

Persistent endurance and range, SATCOM comms, IR & thermal sensors, AI sensors fusion. SAR, Inspection of natural disasters, fire foci mapping, communications relay during fire fighting tasks.

Fire Combat Element

Converted OPVs. Fire-fighting missions assisted by a high degree of safety, Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL), manoeuvrability at low altitude and high cruise speed, agility for aerial operations in the mountain environment, water bombing drops to combat wildfires.

SAR Element

HAULER cargo drone firefighter rescue.

 

SolarLight wild fire fighting system architecture. The UAV captures visual and thermal images of an ongoing fire and sends them to a command center through satellite communication. Images are geo-rectified and delivered to hazard response teams.

 

EO-IR Sensor: Multi-sensor turret, HD EO & IR, Laser, Object tracking, Geo-lock, Real-time video stabilization, Motion detection, Payload control unit.

 

R&D Program

  • Optimised aerial firefighting system
  • Early wildfire detection using AI and machine learning
  • Neural networks image recognition
  • Sensor fusion
  • Communications relay
  • LTE and extended mobile network
  • Autonomy; swarming; UTM
AWFS

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

Collaborative Research