Fire Geometrical Characteristics Estimation Using a Visible Stereovision System Carried by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

In the context of wildfire research and fight, there is a need of measuring fire geometrical characteristics to better understand the phenomena occurring during the propagation, to develop and to improve models in order to anticipate the fire behavior and to position firefighters and water drops and to protect the population. This paper presents a framework composed by an unmanned aerial vehicle carrying a visible stereovision system developed in order to estimate the position, rate of spread, height, inclination angle, base width and surface of fires obtained by experimental burnings at field scale. This research is developed with the ultimate goal to carry out a technological transfer in order to obtain systems that can be used by firefighters.