An integrated UAV system for wildfire evolution monitoring and data acquisition

Fighting wildfires is one of the most challenging and demanding tasks requiring quick response and precise coordination through effective decision-making. The continuous monitoring and estimation of wildfire propagation can provide time-critical information for better decision-making in compacting wildfires. In this paper, we propose an autonomous unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) system that is capable of monitoring the wildfire evolution but is also able to periodically fly ahead of the fire and collect valuable data (i.e., fuel data, weather data, etc.) that fire behavior analysts (FBAN) can use to anticipate better the fire behavior and movement. Specifically, we developed a control scheme that, based on a fire estimation model and an unscented Kalman filter (UKF), calculates target points and controls the UAV to monitor the fire. Moreover, the control scheme (based on the fire movement) periodically calculates virtual targets ahead of the fire and guides the UAV to visit for data acquisition. The proposed approach is evaluated in a simulation environment, demonstrating its effectiveness for fire monitoring and data acquisition.