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New FireDrone can operate through flames

Thanks to its insulating jacket made of lightweight aerogel, the FireDrone can collect and forward data from the scene of a fire during a fire mission, even in extremely hot conditions. [Image credit: Empa]

 

 

 

 

By Andrea Six, Empa

Researchers from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) and Imperial College London (UK) are developing a heat-resistant drone that can analyze the source of danger at close range in the event of a building or forest fire. This allows firefighters to optimize the strategy of a high-risk operation before entering the danger zone.

The drone can provide initial data from the hot spot. Based on this information, the men and women of the response team can optimize their strategy before venturing into the inferno. "Before they go directly into the danger zone, the firefighters naturally don't know what exactly awaits them and what difficulties they will encounter," says Mirko Kovac, head of Empa's Sustainability Robotics Laboratory and the Aerial Robotics Lab at Imperial College London. Here, for example, drones equipped with cameras and CO2 (carbon dioxide) sensors could provide important information about the distribution of fire sources, unexpected hazards, or trapped people.

Too hot for normal drones
Drones are already being used to fight fires, taking aerial photos, lifting fire hoses onto skyscrapers, or dropping extinguishing agents in remote areas, for example to contain the spread of forest fires -- but only at a safe distance from the source of the fire.

"To fly closer, the extreme heat generated by a fire is too great for conventional drones," says David Häusermann of Empa's Sustainability Robotics lab. Close to the fire, the frame melts, and the electronics give up. "More than aerial photos of the fire site from a safe distance are not possible with commercial drones," Häusermann says. The researcher's goal, therefore, was to develop a drone that could withstand the heat and thus provide fast and accurate data from the center of the hot spot.

Ultra-light and tough
Häusermann worked with firefighters to determine the requirements of a drone in a fire mission and set out to find a material that could protectively surround the heart of the drone -- the motors, batteries, sensors, and electronics. He found what he was looking for with colleagues from Empa's Building Energy Materials and Components lab. The researchers, led by Shanyu Zhao and Wim Malfait, were able to synthesize an insulating material that can withstand high temperatures and thus make the drone more fire resistant.

The glass-fiber-reinforced aerogel encloses the heart of the drone, protecting the power supply and electronics from heat. [Image credit: Empa]

 

 

When designing the FireDrone, the researchers were inspired by nature, or more precisely by animals such as penguins, arctic foxes, and spittlebugs that live in extreme temperatures. All these animals have corresponding layers of fat, fur, or produce their own protective layers of thermoregulating material that enable them to survive under extreme conditions.

Suitable for spacesuits
The material identified is an aerogel, an ultra-light material consisting almost entirely of air-filled pores enclosed in a hint of polymer substance. In this case, the materials researchers chose an aerogel based on a polyimide plastic. Polyimide aerogels are also being researched by NASA, for example, for the insulation of space suits.

However, Shanyu Zhao did not rely on polyimide alone to synthesize the aerogel: The composite material consists of polyimide and silica and is also reinforced with glass fibers. "Laboratory analyses have shown that this comparatively fire-resistant material is particularly well suited for use in drones," says aerogel researcher Zhao.

At the test site of the Andelfingen Training Center of the Canton of Zurich, the FireDrone can demonstrate its capabilities in as real a situation as possible. [Image credit: Empa]

 

 

The prototype of the FireDrone has already performed well in initial tests at Empa's flight arena in Dubendorf. The flight characteristics and controllability of the drone, which is about 50 cm tall (just under 20 in.), were excellent -- even with an aerogel insulation jacket and an additional built-in cooling system, as well as aluminum cladding to reflect heat. The design, which the researchers just published in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems, was convincing in this "dry run."

However, whether the aircraft would also pass the test of fire had to be demonstrated by tests under conditions as real as possible, which are typical of a fire operation. The Empa team was able to use such a real-life scenario on the training grounds of the Andelfingen training center, about a 30-minute drive north of Zurich. While Stefan Keller, training coordinator for the fire department of the Canton of Zurich's building insurance, and the training center's logistics crew lit a gas fire in an oversized metal bowl, the drone pilots steered their device right into the inferno.

The result: The FireDrone prototype survived several test flights. "Even after several flights, the electronics, thermal imaging camera, and CO2 sensors of the FireDrone are undamaged and ready for further testing," says Häusermann. A next step would now be to test the FireDrone in a fire, which, unlike the comparatively clean gas flame, produces soot.

Häusermann says the FireDrone was designed for a flight time of about 10 minutes, which includes bearing the weight of the camera, sensors, and thermal insulation. The lightness of the aerogel keeps the additional materials weight down, which could affect flight time.

Firefighting expert Stefan Keller was also impressed by the results: "If a drone makes the initial reconnaissance of the situation, we don't have to send firefighters into the danger zone immediately. For us, this progress is enormously interesting," he says.

The FireDrone could also be used in extremely cold environments, such as in polar regions and on glaciers. The team has also tested the drone in a glacier tunnel in Switzerland to study how the system behaves in very cold temperatures. Discussions are already underway with potential industry partners to further develop the prototype. "The use of drones is often limited by environmental factors such as extreme temperatures," says Kovac. "With the FireDrone, we are showing a way to significantly expand the future range of applications for drones in extreme environments."

Published July 2023

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