Robots, AI or drones are only usable in firefighting if we add vision and know-how
The modern way of fighting forest fires cannot do without technologies that already exist and are waiting to be incorporated by science, the private sector, firefighters, foresters and other safety forces into their daily operations. That is why 3MON as a supplier has become part of the event – Project SILVANUS, which is researching and addressing effective prevention and extinguishment of the green lungs of our planet on an international level.
To get a better idea, let’s transport ourselves to the near future and model a typical forest fire situation. Imagine you are walking through a beautiful piece of forest on a ridge in a protected nature reserve on a hot summer’s day and you see smoke at the foot of the ridge. A prolonged drought might tell you that it’s not just a family out for a barbecue, but that you might be witnessing the start of a forest fire. As a hiker, you have no idea that there is a really big stretch of the valley that is prone to fire, which was discovered by scientific methods and correctly predicted by the Technical University in Zvolen. They took into account the amount of fuel, the nature of the subsoil, meteorological forecasts, windiness and many other parameters.
That is why one of the powerful modern monitoring cameras supplied by 3MON has been installed at this risky location. Practically at the same time as you spotted the fire, our camera also caught and detected smoke from the undergrowth. You, as a conscious tourist, send a photo of the smoke with geolocation data and data about your location in relation to the fire to an application designed and launched by experts from the Institute of Informatics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. By the time your electronic warning reaches the central system, the camera footage is already being evaluated by the firefighters of the relevant district fire brigade. The same information is also provided in real time to the forest rangers managing the smoking area and other components of the integrated rescue system.
Not even twenty minutes have passed since the first smoke and foresters confirm that the forest fire is starting to spread quite rapidly. The intervention commander from the district administration of the regional directorate of the fire and rescue brigade issues an alarm and firefighters head into the difficult to reach and increasingly hot terrain. However, they do not know the details of the access routes, which may change due to forestry activities. Relying on outdated analogue maps would be risky.
Operators among specially trained firefighters are forming a swarm of firefighting drones that can accurately monitor the extent and precise location of fires, provide a detailed overview of the terrain, the location of water sources and, of course, the movement of firefighters and their equipment. All this is brought together by the technology and software called GINA, which 3MON supplies to the Slovak market. Thanks to this system, the intervention commander can determine the intervention strategy in real time. Each firefighter also carries a monitoring device, which is also used, for example, by humanitarian organisations when their personnel move in danger zones.
Thanks to this modern technology, firefighters get to water and fire faster and the chances of containing a spreading forest fire when it is still in its infancy are increased. Taking off in a helicopter with a Bambi bag, firefighters install ponds and pump water directly to the fire. However, one of the sections is dangerous for the deployment of a live force, so a special firefighting robot, Colossus, approaches the fire. For a certain part of the section, it carries several hundred kilograms of equipment into the field, saving the forces of the exhausted firefighters. In one of the sections, the robot, connected to a fire engine, creates a water curtain to protect the firefighters from the dangerous heat for some time. Then, guided by remote control, it approaches the critical section of the fire and extinguishes it using, if necessary, a removable barrage. Later, it also monitors the condition of the roots to see if they are smouldering, all without the need for firefighters to be physically present at the spot where the fire is strongest. Suppression is also done with the help of a special, environmentally safe compound that is added to the water and has the ability to penetrate deeper into the soil down to the smouldering tree roots.
After a relatively short time, the fire is controlled until it is completely extinguished. As the incident commander had perfect visibility thanks to the GINA system, fortunately no one was injured. The early extinguishing of the fire also saved the state millions of euros, as the fire did not have time to spread.
Modern firefighting training
This is also how a forest fire scenario in Slovakia could play out. Although we do not live in southern Europe, where such fires are more frequent, climate change is threatening similar situations in Slovakia. That is why 3MON has joined the international SILVANUS project, which links science, firefighters, foresters and the private sector. All with the aim of achieving better prevention and elimination of forest fires. The model story mentioned above illustrates the vision that 3MON brings.
This is how forest fire fighting could and, in my opinion, should be carried out when we make adequate use of the possibilities provided by modern technology, whether it is the use of artificial intelligence and integrated IT solutions, drones, robots, coupled with the right vision, scientific knowledge and the playfulness of firefighters, foresters and other components of the integrated rescue system.
We also tried out modern forest fire-fighting procedures during the pilot demonstration of the SILVANUS project, which took place in the Kyslinky Biosphere Reserve in Poľana from 24 to 26 April; the demonstration itself took place on 25 April. It shows that if modern technology is added to the excellent credentials of our firefighters, who have demonstrated their abilities, for example, in extinguishing forest fires in Greece, we can save hectares of precious forest from fires.
Although the demonstration itself took place in unseasonably wet weather, even such a large international project, of which 3MON is proud to be a part, is not spared by the weather conditions.
However, I am glad that the technologies that we have supplied to the project as 3MON have been excellent and we can say that even in the event of an acute fire, they would definitely make the work of the various components of the fire brigade much easier.
