The Hotshot Wake up does some good firsthand reporting and asks a key question about this..
Check it out here.
Welcome to the future… There are autonomous drone ships flying above our National Forests trying to detect wildfires. These unmanned craft are constantly overhead, scanning and communicating with an ever-growing number of wildfire satellites and self-integrating into public camera systems.
Once the fully autonomous AI systems detect a fire, they launch a drone helicopter which quickly joins the swarming symphony of non-human equipment. High-definition surveillance camera systems collect data and analyze weather and potential spread patterns of the new start as the drone helicopter makes its first drop.
This is literally right around the corner, and there is an $11M prize for those who can make it happen faster.
In the article, he talks about the different companies..
With the new wildfire competition launching today, I’m confident that many private military and California-based Tech companies will join in the competition to autonomously put out wildfires within 10 minutes… as stated by its founder.
Folks in the wildland firefighting world have worked hard to educate people on the need to NOT put out all fires immediately. This was the goal in early forest management and created overgrown and choked-out forests. Most recently, Rep. Tom McClintock of California pushed for a 24-hour rule on new starts and was met with a lot of backlash.
What are your thoughts on this competition and the systems being introduced?
I had two thoughts.. one is “when this works, how will that change the language of “increasing catastrophic climate-driven wildfire” with acreage estimates and so on. Is there any feedback between modeling impacts and adaptation technologies?
But to his second question, I would think as the drone analyzed weather, etc. it could also call up WFU teams to engage.. or hold it until human beings “get there” and make decisions about engagement. Lots of AI trust to be built there, but lots of WFU trust to be built anyway… might as well kill two birds with one drone.. 😉
1 thought on “The Wildfire XPrize- Care of The Hotshot Wakeup”
The Forest supervisor of the Rogue-Siskiyou NF is a NorCal tribal indigenous American. He is running that NF with a mandate to have all reported fire out by 10AM the following day. Or sooner. Ask the SouthernOregon-NorCal residents if they object. 1987 to 2019 was more fire than that area can withstand and meet all the esoterica goals of congressional preservation of intact OG habitats, provide cover enough to enable illegal marijuana grows to fully exterminate Northern Spotted Owls with rodenticides, and keep the Center for Biology BS in business and the EAJA paying like a slot machine.
The Forest supervisor of the Rogue-Siskiyou NF is a NorCal tribal indigenous American. He is running that NF with a mandate to have all reported fire out by 10AM the following day. Or sooner. Ask the SouthernOregon-NorCal residents if they object. 1987 to 2019 was more fire than that area can withstand and meet all the esoterica goals of congressional preservation of intact OG habitats, provide cover enough to enable illegal marijuana grows to fully exterminate Northern Spotted Owls with rodenticides, and keep the Center for Biology BS in business and the EAJA paying like a slot machine.