sustainability
Modern forest surveillance
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Test fire as part of the forest guardian project
As part of the 5G project Waldwächter, a test fire was carried out in the district of Görlitz on March 29, 2023. In order to test the methods for detecting a forest fire, a 6550 square meter forest area was burned down in a controlled manner.
The test fire was accompanied by the Federal Forestry Service Lausitz and secured by the fire brigade.
The selected fire area was particularly suitable for reasons of landscape conservation. In order to test the sensors for forest fire detection, numerous gas sensors were installed directly in the fire area and in its immediate vicinity.
In the future, the sensors should be able to identify specific smoke gases and distinguish them from other environmental influences such as fog or dust. In addition, cameras for different wavelength ranges of light were installed on several fire watch towers in order to be able to reliably detect the fire from afar by analyzing the image data obtained. Manually controlled drones were also used. Numerous aerial photographs were taken and the drones' tolerance to heat and smoke was tested. The goal for the future is to automatically detect a possible forest fire through the AI-supported detection of anomalies.
As soon as this is the case and various sensors detect smoke gases, the drones should automatically swarm out and provide further supporting data for detecting or fighting a forest fire. The planning, preparation and implementation of the test fire was only possible thanks to the expertise and committed cooperation of the German Armed Forces, the fire brigade and the Lausitz Federal Forestry Service. For the further progress of the project, the test fire provided highly relevant data, the validation and analysis of which is crucial for the development of the algorithms and methods of artificial intelligence. Another test fire is expected to take place in autumn 2023 in order to be able to subject the technology, which has been optimized on the basis of previous findings, to another test.
