35,340km². That’s how many square kilometres went up in smoke in Europe over the last six years, an area larger than Belgium. More frequent and ferocious wildfires have fatal consequences for people and wildlife, as well as the economy of the areas it affect.

Now,three partners from Europe are joining forces in a new EU project to help firefighters combat this in the future.

Since 2019, the Danish company Robotto has been working on a drone-based solution to assist firefighters. Building upon this, they are teaming up with the Danish Technological Institute (DTI) and Spanish drone company FuVeX to extend and strengthen the assistance tool for firefighters. The new partnership will do this by developing a long-range drone solution that can monitor small-scale active ember sites and active flames in large-scale, on top of providing real-time fire maps to fire responders during the day and at night.

-Providing firefighters with key mission data in real-time has long been the focus at Robotto and we're excited to work in collaboration with FuVeX and DTI to provide 24/7 long-range aerial intelligence to firefighters and extend our system to include detection of people and location of equipment, Kenneth Richard Geipel, co-founder of Robotto, says.

The Danish-Spanish collaboration, also known as FIREDRAGON, just received €900,000from the EU-supported innovation program Eurostars.

Hidden fire pockets

Wildfires are a normal part of the forest's life cycle, but in recent years the fireshave become hotter, more frequent, and harder to control.

In 2021,around 1.76 gigatonnes of CO2 were emitted into the atmosphere from wildfires.To put this in perspective, that is more than half of the entire yearly mission of the EU. The damage inflicted by wildfires in 2022 alone is estimated to be at least €2 billion.

This is why the three innovation partners in FIREDRAGON agree: It is vital to provide firefighters with a powerful, intelligent robotic solution for their toolbox.

Today, firefighters already use drones, but mainly just as simple cameras. We see a need and an opportunity to develop the drone from being just an eye in the air to also provide fast, operational information through a combination of the latest technology platforms, senors, and artificial intelligence, Jethith Damsbo Anandasubramaniam, a specialist at DTI.

With the addition of the drone solution in the field, firefighters can expect to automatically spot hidden pockets of fire, which look dead, but can flare up again later.

Dealing with fires when they are smallis enormously more resource-efficient and effective than dealing with them when they are already raging. It also makes the firefighting job less dagerous, Jeshith Damsbo Ananasubramaniam.

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The night is decisive

Due to rising temperatures and drought, wildfires are increasingly intense and tend not to "die down" at night. There is currently no method forcollecting fire data in low light conditions, as FIREDRAGON utilises thermal imaging, the solution will be the first to offer a full picture of the fire at night.

We know with certainty that the devastaion caused by forest fire sis only going to increase in the coming years. Therefore, we need to provide emergency services with reliable, all-weather and easy-to-use drone technology to protect European socieites from this catastrophe, Carlos Matilla Codesal, founder of FuVeX in Spain.

The first step in the project is to engage in dialogue with firefighters andemergency management agencies in both Denmark and Spain, so that the technology and user interface meet their real needs.

Do you work with firefighting and do you have input for the development? Then you are welcome to contact one of the project partners below.

Kenneth Richard Geipel

krg@robotto.ai

+45 20 70 03 29

Carlos Matilla Codesal c.matilla@fuvex.com

+34645591466

Jeshith Damsbo Anandasubramaniam jeda@dti.dk

+45 7220 35 50

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