Fire Fighting Equipment Development - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Trials. Ripley Valley Rural Fire Brigade - August 2010

Transcription

1 Fire Fighting Equipment Development - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Trials Ripley Valley Rural Fire Brigade - August 2010 The Brigade offered to help evaluate the capabilities of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or remote controlled micro-aircraft with GPS and Video capabilities for the use as an IMT tool during hazard reduction and wildfire situations. V-TOL, a locally run aerospace company specialising in UAV products and services offered to help out during a planned hazard reduction burn at Swanbank near Ripley on the 29th August. For the trial, V-TOL brought out it's smallest unit, a Warrigal fixed wing UAV with a control team. A video of the trials is available on request. It's small but it can go up for ~60 minutes, travel at speeds approaching 100km/h and out to a range in excess of 5 kilometres. By keeping under 500ft in altitude, the UAV's avoid many safety issues such as interfering with standard aircraft and therefore meeting CASA regulations. The aircraft is made of a polymer foam material with a toughened polymer skin and weighs only 1 kilogram. 1 P age

2 The pilot operates using systems that incorporate pre-programmed GPS coordinates, flight plans and live video feed. It also can be manually flown if required. Operators must be fully qualified and extensively trained along similar lines to full pilots. 2 P age

3 The Brigade has over the past few years investigated a number of GPS data loggers for use in vehicle and personnel tracking applications. The main aim of the experiments were to assess the UAV as a platform for the quality of live video feed to the IMT control room and GPS data of the fire ground that could be manipulated with existing mapping software such as Oziexplorer. All crews were briefed on the hazard reduction burn with full mapping and site preparation being carried out over previous days. 3 P age

4 The Warrigal Trainer is the smallest UAV operated by V-TOL and only has a small payload capability, approx 50 grams and an area roughly the size of a box of matches; or one small GPS data logger. Larger UAV have greater capacities and can be tailored to suit alternate payload applications. 4 P age

5 5 P age The teams on the ground commenced the hazard reduction burn.

6 The burn area was nearly 4 kilometres away from the IMT at the Ripley Valley RFB Station and the UAV took just over 90 seconds to reach the target area. Unless you were looking for the UAV, crews on the ground would not know it was there as the sounds of a fire ground generally drown out the tiny electric motor of the UAV. Live video feed can be broadcast back into the IMT to assist with understanding conditions, appliance locations, potential hazards, progress of the burn, and safety considerations. If utilised in a wildfire situation, GPS coordinates can be instantly obtained to help identify fire perimeters, water points, escape routes, gates etc. 6 P age

7 The technology exists to have a hand held video receiver for crews on the ground to view live video streaming from the aircraft to help with fire management at appliance level. 7 P age

8 A screen dump of the live feed with data overlay as tested reveals basic data. Resolution is very basic on the Trainer model as tested. 8 P age

9 Future trials will depend upon feedback from Queensland Fire and Rescue Service but the Brigade found great potential with the use of UAV's as a specialised IMT tool and extension of the mapping / planning function; especially with the management of wild fire in remote or unfamiliar territory. Further work is required to identify a more suitable video resolution so that simple identification of appliances via roof branding is achievable. Additional functionality in terms of UAV's carrying radio repeaters is also on the drawing board. Further investigation is also required with GPS tracking and logging technologies, especially those that can integrate with map manipulation software such as Oziexplorer. The final uncertainty would be commercial viability, but that's another story. A big thank you to the V-TOL crew as well as all of the Ripley Valley RFB Crews who helped on the day. George Ganzenmuller First Officer Ripley Valley Rural Fire Brigade August P age

10 Suggested Operational Criteria for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in Fire Ground Management Introduction: The following paper identifies suggested performance criteria and operating models for UAV units that would be necessary for operation as an incident management tool for Rural Fire Brigades. These observations and opinions are based on the Brigade s experiences during trials in 2010 as well as subsequent research. The Brigade recognises significant potential in the use of UAV s to supplement traditional air operations in terms of initial incident reconnaissance and potentially rapid radio relay duties. This is especially true during night time operations as the flight would be making the operation much safer than sending out fire fighters on the ground to record an incident. We also realise that there will be a transition period where incremental benefits only may be achieved in terms of information and service that effective UAV use delivers but it is highly desirable to have clear long term goals so that QFRS and UAV service providers work together to deliver the right outcome as effecting as possible. For example; the ultimate goal for a fire mapping exercise might be seamless network data flowing in continuously including georeferenced images but the interim solution might well be live video feed from the UAV plus a GPS data logger with time stamping that can be used after the flight returns in the development of incident planning and mapping. In Flight Operation: The UAV needs to be able to operate autonomously to a range of at least 5 kilometres with a preference of up to 10 kilometres from the control point to the furthest reaches of the incident to ensure larger fires such as campaign fires can be realistically covered. Similarly; the UAV should be able to operate for at least 30 minutes and preferably up to an hour in operation. This may mean the use of a relay point is necessary for large complex incidents. The impact of different payloads and strong wind conditions on flight constraints needs to be clearly understood. The UAV would have to be able to withstand wind speeds of up to 40km/h and remain under control as well as in contact with the control point through thick smoke as well as the associated thermal updrafts associated with a wild fire. In Flight Video: The UAV needs to have in flight standard camera resolution capable of reading the appliance number on the bonnet/roof of the appliance from a standard loitered position. This same resolution must be reproduced when viewing live feed back at a control point. It would be also desirable to have infrared camera capability to assess hot spots or to provide some video information during night flights. The ideal solution would see the video feed being available on a secure network that could be access via field lap top or tablet PC where 3G coverage exists. The video feed could be cut back to staggered images, potentially cached if used in an area with patchy / poor 3G reception. 1 P age Version 1

11 Geo Referencing: One of the additional benefits of the UAV technology is the rapid identification of strategic points of interest through the confirmation of GPS coordinates. The software associated with the GPS data needs to be accessible instantaneously on a secure network for controllers to use. Track data and waypoint data would need to be able to be inserted into A TOM and OziExplorer. The interim solution as previously mentioned would be the use of a GPS data logger in the payload that can be connected to OziExplorer on return of the UAV. A suitable logger needs to be identified as RVRFB trials found that some loggers have their signal blocked when operating in the UAV, possibly through RF frequency interference. An extension of this aspect of UAV operation is the tagging of special locations such as water points, access gates, assets and hazards. Through wireless communications, once the air observer determines these points, the UAV could communicate these instantaneously to ground crews with appropriate receivers. Other Mapping Data: The UAV could be used to help log the direction of fire spread; rate of fire spread and also wind speed /direction at the fire front which could be used in predicting fire behaviour. This would be a software solution based on pilot observations and waypoint creation procedures whilst in operation. Communications: The UAV s can potentially be controlled via radio, 3G or satellite phone communication channels. These same communication types can be used to transfer video and data back to the control point as well as potentially any secure network site. Operating Models: There are two main types of missions a UAV can accomplish to assist with Incident Operations. Reconnaissance Radio Relay Platform Both types of missions would need a Control Team including a pilot and air observer as well as potentially a Deployment Team if operating the UAV remotely. A proposed operating model is for the Air Operations Team to have a number of UAV s and trained pilots and air observers in a given region who would activate when approved by the Air Operations Manager following a request from an incident controller. They would travel to a mutually agreeable site and support the IMT as required. Another potential model for the use of UAV s in the field would be to have the units strategically located around high risk areas in kits managed by Specialist RFS Deployment Teams. When an incident occurs and the Air Operations management approve the use of the UAV, then the specialist deployment team would support the incident management team in the field at a mutually agreeable location, assemble the UAV and connect it to a satellite phone uplink. At the other end of the uplink; a pilot and air observer could pre program the UAV for the desired mission and manage the operation. 2 P age Version 1