By Alan M. Petrillo

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) have come up with a drone that releases ping-pong-like balls filled with chemicals that ignite in order to clear brushy and grassy areas before they can be burned by wildfires.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln fly a drone that releases plastic sphere dispenser balls to ignite brush and grassy areas to clear them in controlled burns. The testing was done on public land in Beatrice, Nebraska, in cooperation with the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, and Homestead National Monument. (Photo courtesy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.)

Carrick Detweiler, assistant professor at UNL, says his team recently demonstrated the functionality of the fire-starting drone on public land in April, working through the National Park Service, Department of Interior and Homestead National Monument in Beatrice, Nebraska. "We also have had interest in this technology from the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Agriculture," Detweiler points out. "We started this project two years ago with a design and put together a prototype, which then was tested in a lab, then went to indoor testing in larger areas, and outdoor testing on private land before the Homestead test."

Detweiler says his team purchased an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Ascending Technologies, in Germany, and developed the fire ignition device that would be carried by the drone. "Our ignition device had to be robust enough to go on a small UAV with high level controls," he says. "We used ping-pong-style balls that are the same that manned aircraft use to start controlled burns. These are plastic sphere dispenser (PSD) spheres filled with a chemical that, when injected into another chemical, produces a hot flame."

A PSD is a compact aerial ignition device dispenser, typically made of aluminum and filled with a high-grade potassium permanganate powder, that when injected with glycol, causes a chemical reaction and a 20- to 40-second delayed ignition, depending on the ambient temperature. The ignition burns for approximately two minutes and allows fire to effectively take place during burn operations.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln assistant professor Carrick Detweiler, left, and professor Sebastian Elbaum program a sequence of locations and drops for the wildland fire drone they developed. (Photo courtesy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.)

Sebastian Elbaum, professor of computer science and engineering, and a member of the team, says that the team developed a series of mechanisms to inject the glycol while the drone is flying, monitor the location of where the balls are dropped, determine if they are on the proper preprogrammed location, and also if the balls are live or not. "This is a semiautonomous process," Elbaum notes. "We program in a sequence for the drone's locations and drops but also have a safety pilot who can take over for the drone if necessary. We are able to operate farther than line-of-sight, but because of current Read more

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