Innovative Drone Design Proposal for Forest Fire Management

Proposal Memo: Memo To: Professor Itua Date: 10/04/2017 Executive Summary What we plan to do is create drones that can monitor as well as extinguish forest fires. In the last decade, hundreds of thousand of forest fire have scorched 5.5 million acres of American land. Sadly, just in this year there has been many civilian and firefighter deaths in wildfires. The contents of this memo will include a brief introduction of what we’re doing and the reasons why we are doing it. It will include the technical details of the drone and its operations, sketches, and a system diagram. A list of materials for the drones, equipment, and their cost will be included. The roles of each team member will be listed followed by possible changes we will make in the future. A Case for the Project The reason we chose this topic is because over the last several decades, forest fires/ wildfires have been getting worse in quantity and they have have been producing an alarming amount of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, particularly in California, Spain, and Portugal. Overall, the study estimates that U.S. fires release about 290 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, the equivalent of 4 to 6 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning.

Figure 1: California Air Quality In this figure we see that recently the air quality in California, particularly in the bay area, has been at a very unhealthy level. Smoke concentrations reached as high as 442 in southern Napa on a scale in which 150 is considered unhealthy to breathe. Soot levels have reached major highs in San Rafael as well as

San Francisco, levels at about 150 in Vallejo, West Oakland, and Berkeley. Levels in Gilroy also maxed out at about 80, according to the air district. Project Description The project will be utilizing pre-existing cell towers in order to mount hi-tech cameras with the ability to sense wild fires through heat signature and thermal imaging. Within a small proximity of the mounted cameras will be a heavy-duty, wirelessly-charged deployable drone. This drone will be activated by the scouting camera, and be immediately deployed to the location of the developing fire. (as shown in figure 2 ) This drone can also be utilized as a sweeping monitor, where it will conduct search patterns around the existing limit of the search camera to increase its overall range.

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Figure 2 : Sketches or picture of design Figure 3: System Diagram In this system diagram, it explains step by step what the plan of action for the drone is. Drone with camera, Fire extinguisher bomb, Thermal imaging sensor (cell tower) Team Commentary

Mike, Fabian, Clara will be working on the researching and design of the fire extinguishing drone, video, and sketches. Don and Michael will work on the powerpoint. Everyone in this group will be working on the proposal memo, project report, poster, prototype, presentation. Leadership Roster: Don Hempsmyer Chao Chen (Mike) Michael Elsner Fabian Borjon Financial Implications/Costing of Project Itemize cost: $739.04 Drone( $593 ), Arduino kit ( $64.99 ) , Lipo battery ( $7.62 ), Micro Servo ($8.45), Flame Sensor($7.45), controller transmitter ($44.02) Project Plan/Estimated Time for Completion (Conclusion) This project will take about 6 weeks to complete. Price may be a problem due to the expensive equipment. Change in materials used or changes in locations. Signed Statement I, Michael E., Chao Chen(Mike), Don H., Fabian B., agree to the contents of this document. X_____________________________ X_____________________________ X_____________________________ X_____________________________

User Manual The Fire Bombz – Fire Fighting Drone Author(s) (Mike) Chao Chen, Fabian Borjon, Michael Elsner, Don Hempsmyer Ardurino flame sensor assembly : Step 1: Develop and upload the coding language onto the Ardurino. Step 2: Attach the buzzer * Attach positive lead to pin (13) of Ardurino and Negative lead into (GND) Step 3: Attach Flame Sensor · Attach Positive lead of flame sensor to (5V), GND lead of flame sensor to (GND) pin, and Digital Output lead of flame sensor to (DO pin 2). Step 4: Attach 9v power supply Arduino. Drone – X-Star Premium The X-Star Premium is an easy to fly quadcopter for aerial photography and filmmaking. It includes a high quality camera, custom built remote controller, and intelligent Flight Battery, and is compatible with the DJI Go app for mobile device. 1. The battery capacity is significantly reduced when flying in cold environments (i.e. air temperatures below 0 degree Celsius) 2. It is not recommended to fly in very cold environments (i.e. air temperatures below -10 degree C). Ensure the battery voltage is stable when operating in air temperatures between -10 degree C and 5 degree C 3. End of flight as soon as possible if the Low Battery Level Warning appears when you are flying in low temperature environments. 4. Try to warm up the battery indoors prior to flying in low temperature environments.

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5. Keep the battery core temperature above 20 degree C to ensure optimal performance. 6. The charger will pause the charging process if the battery core temperature is out of operating range (0-40 degree C) Connecting to the WiFi Video Downlink: 1. Switch on the remote controller. 2. Turn on the aircraft. 3. On your mobile device, select “X-Star_XXXXXX’ from the WiFi network list, and enter the default password ‘99999999’. 4. Launch the mobile app on your mobile device.When the connection is successful, the HOMEPAGE of the app displays CONNECTED in the upper left corner, and the FLIGHT INFORMATION PANEL on the remote controller displays APP CONNECTED in the FLIGHT STATUS BAR. Flying Conditions 1. DO NOT use the aircraft in adverse weather conditions including rain, snow, fog, and wind speed exceeding 10m/s. 2. Only fly in open areas. Tall buildings and steel structures ay affect the accuracy of the on- board compass and GPS signal. 3. Avoid flying near obstacles, crowds, high voltage power lines, trees and bodies of water. 4. Avoid flying area with high levels of electromagnetism, including mobile phone base stations and radio transmission towers. 5. Aircraft and battery performance is subject to environmental factors such as air density and temperature. Be very careful when flying over 19685 feet (6000m) above sea level as the battery and aircraft performance may be reduced. Fire extinguisher bomb – Balloon, Vinegar, Baking Soda, and Dish Soap: Step 1: Fill a flexible water bottle with approximately 16 fluid ounces of vinegar. Step 2: Add approximately 1-2 teaspoons of dish soap to vinegar. Step 3: Using a funnel, scoop approximately 8 tablespoons of baking soda into latex balloon. Step 4: Without combining any ingredients, wrap the opening of the balloon around the water bottle neck. Step 5: When ready, turn balloon upside-down and let baking soda fall into the bottle. Shake to mix.

Project Title: Firefighting Drones Design Report Michael Elsner, Don Hempsmyer, Fabian Borjon, Chao Chen(Mike) Class: Engineering - 101 Date: 11/17/2017

Executive Summary The design project requirements were we needed to be able to have a drone that can capture fire locations with its camera, come off its charging station, pick up a certain sized payload, carry that payload onto the fire in order to help contain the fire until fire first responders arrive. This is accomplished using a X-Star Premium drone that is able to support the payload weight, has a high resolution camera and is able sense the fire and drop the payload onto the fire. Using an arduino kit with a certain code, the flame sensor is able to sense the flames from certain ranges. With top of the market technology today, thermal imaging can sense up to five, possibly ten kilometers. The fire extinguishing bombs will have a solution we made to put out the fire, consisted of vinegar, baking soda, and dish soap. In order to pop the balloon to put out the fire, we attached a certain piece of coat hanger with nails to the drone. With the drone and

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all these attachments we were able to put out a small, contained fire that we created for simulation purposes and it was a success.With the tests and simulations we performed, the drone with certain attachments proved to be effective. In conclusion, these attachments can help making fire-fighters lives easier as well as our lives safer when it comes to dealing with forest and wildfires. The Problem The problem is every year millions of acres of forest are burned down each year, thousands of homes, livestock, and families are unfortunately taken with those acres. Forest fires start off as small fires but are able to reach unstable heights. Fire responders are only able to do so much and that’s after the fire has spread across a forest and taken homes. The problem is we need to detect fires when they are small and we are able to respond upon it before it reaches unstable heights and before fire responders can act. Design Specifications The reason the X-Star Premium drone was found the most effective drone to be used in this task is because of the ability to remain in flight for decent amount of time at about twenty-five minutes per airflight and its four-k resolution detachable camera is able to to capture high- quality aerial imagery. The camera is also able to move in a 108 degrees motion. With better funding, thermal imaging would be used but for this project we used a flame sensing arduino kit. Putting the sensor together and then and uploading a code onto it, it will be able to sense infrared light. The flame sensor was able to respond to a lighter 6ft away. The drone itself is about 3.5 pounds and can support the payload size we need in this project. The balloon with the fire extinguishing solution, is around one pound to two pounds at most. Adding a hook to the balloon and attaching a middle piece to the drone legs, the balloon with the hook is able to latch on. Once the drone picks up the payload, we attached a balloon popping mechanism in order to pop the balloon over the fire. The balloon popping mechanism was made out of a long piece of coat hanger due to its flexibility, and also attached nails to the hanger to pop the balloon. ” The Concept (10pts)

Detailed Design Work Within our project we have focused on developing a strategy to assist with early detection and possible eradication of uncontrolled wildfires using technology that can monitor flames from a distance while enabling the conduct of emergency response by stationed multirotor Drones. Within our implication we used a scaled-down, less technological approach in order to test the practicality of unmanned fire detection and extinction while remaining within our monetary budget constraints. The first order of our research brought us to the possibility of detecting fire from a distance. In a real-world application this would be done by sophisticated monitoring camera tower-systems with remote-location controlling capabilities. The onboard camera would have an advanced range capacity with Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) imaging and programming to establish 360° automated monitoring and detection. This will also enable technicians to use computer systems from remote locations to monitor, focus, inspect and verify the detection of a wildfire threat. Along with security monitoring, the detection tower will pass an alarm to the nearest Firefighting Stations, where personnel will be able to quickly verify the threat and begin deploying first responders as earliest as possible with any required special gear. Due to monetary constraints our fire-sensing prototype will be an Arduino microcontroller,

programmed using C++ coding software while utilizing a simple power supply, infrared sensor, and audible buzzer to recreate the detection and alarming system for the simulated wildfire. (Please refer to Appendix for Arduino fire-sensing code). The following image (Figure 1) is a simple diagram that was utilized for the assembly of the flame sensor. (Figure 1) During the assembly and testing of the prototype, we had soon discovered that the sensor we ordered was sensitive to ambient sunlight. This posed an issue with producing accurate fire detection monitoring. In order to rectify this issue, the team had developed a simple shroud to be attached to the tip of the IR sensor, and this minimized the sunlight interference. Upon correcting of the issue, we conducted testing and found that the prototype was able to detect an extremely small flame (from a handheld lighter) from approximately 6.5 feet away. Now that the tower-camera system has been explained and the prototype described, we will now discuss the role of the multi-rotor drone. In real world application, each camera-tower would have one, or more, durable multirotor drones with wireless charging capabilities. While the drones will primarily remain stationary at the tower, personnel from the firehouse may take control and manually fly the drones in order to conduct periodic security sweeps to ensure fire safety. During the event of a wildfire detection, these drones will be controlled by a skilled pilot within the firehouse and used to combat the early stages of nearby ignitions. This will not only enable the possibility of extinguishing the wildfire remotely, but will also hinder the fire from developing at a rapid rate while first responders embark. The method of extinguishing that the drones will be utilizing is a rapid payload deployment of specially designed fire-extinguishing spheres. These spheres contain fire retardant powder and a small explosive that will erupt on contact with flames, causing a rapid dispersion of powdered retardant. When a wildfire is

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evident, the drones will be controlled to pick up these fire-extinguishing spheres, which will be stockpiled near the tower base, and flown to the origin of the flames where the payload will be deployed and the preceding actions repeated until suppression is achieved. The pre-developed and patented fire-extinguishing spheres (Figure 2.) will weigh-in at 3 pounds, and have the capability of extinguishing an area of over 8 square meters (Figure 3). This makes the sphere perfect ammunition for the firefighting drone to utilize. (figure 2) (Figure 3) To remain in our budget, we had to develop our own fire-extinguishing sphere, one that was less expensive but also simulated the same weight characteristics. With this requirement we had agreed on utilizing a common mixture for our fire retardant; baking soda, vinegar, and dish soap. In order to mix these items and simulate the explosion, we forced the ingredients into a latex balloon. The mixture produces Co2 gas (carbon dioxide) and foam. The dish soap is simply an additive to help increase the foam content of the mixture. When popped, the balloon will expel the foam and Co2 gas (Figure 4) which will not only cover the fire in liquid foam, but suffocate it as well with Co2 gas.

(Figure 4) Utilizing the drones and extinguishing spheres requires a payload-dropping mechanism to ensure accurate deployment of the sphere. With our real-world application this would be done with a controlled electromagnet. This will ensure easy payload pick-up, a strong hold, and an instantaneous payload-release. With our prototype we began researching electromagnets but quickly decided to implement a release using a servo motor. Unfortunately, when testing our fire-extinguishing prototype, we discovered that contact with fire did not pop the balloon. Upon this discovery, we switched from a drop mechanism to a “popping” mechanism. This mechanism (Figure 5) utilized plastic rods that formed a swiveling arm that contained two sharp pins on the end. The plastic rods were used in conjunction with a wound rubber band, which forced the swivel-arm to remain at an approximate 60° angle to the balloon. This enabled the sharp pins to remain a safe distance away from the balloon while also avoiding interference with the drone rotors. With our simulation, fishing line was attached to the end of the arm so that a member of our team could pull the line and force the arm to swing down and penetrate the balloon that would be suspended from the drone using a wire hook. (Figure 6)

(Figure 5) (Figure 6) Design Assessment In summary of our research we have found that our implementation and theory proves practical. Our prototype and testing has been more than successful given our monetary constraints. As shown in our images, we have successfully implemented an electrical device capable of sensing a fire ignition from a distance. We have proven that a standard multirotor drone is capable of steady flight with an attached payload. We have also successfully simulated the loading of the payload and the extinction of a fire using the fire retardant ingredients listed within this report. At this point, we highly recommend greater funding in order to conduct real-world application. The theory proves probable, and the technology is available. We must invest in assembling high quality equipment and begin developing the network to establish the necessary communication. Wildfire-prone areas in the world should be organized to receive our technologies and services, and the training of firehouse personnel should be conducted immediately. References

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6UJvsL8n9I - Insight Robotics Wildfire Detection System. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm1EgAaD-jw - Remote Control Drop Mechanism From Servo (DIY) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCRJSJPYy2A - EXPLODING Fire Extinguisher Balls https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/public-safety-and-emergency- services/wildfire-status/fire-bans-and-restrictions/ofr_poster_- _email_distribution_72dpi_no_bleeds.pdf - Open Fire Regulations http://quadcopterarena.com/autel-robotics-x-star-premium-features- specifications/ - Drone Specifications Written Statement Signed Statement I, Michael E., Chao Chen(Mike), Don H., Fabian B. agree to the contents of this document. X_____________________________ X_____________________________ X_____________________________ X_____________________________ Weight and measurement of the Drone: X-Star Premium

Product Features ● 4K Video / 12 Megapixel Camera ● Wi-Fi Video Downlink ● Maximum Transmission Distance of 1.2 miles ● Easy to Fly, Intelligent Flight System ● 3-Axis Stabilization Gimbal Product Description The X-Star Premium is sophisticated yet amazingly easy-to-fly. Its 4K camera and 3- axis gimbal takes smooth Ultra HD video and 12-MP stills. Dual GPS and GLONASS navigation, the Starpoint Positioning System, and exclusive SecureFly technology keep the drone safe and stable, even in challenging situations. Part Number X-Star Premium Item Weight 3.52 pounds Package Dimensions 19.5 x 15.6 x 9.76 inches Color Orange Item Package Quantity 1 Performance Description Approved by SGS Batteries Included? Yes Batteries Required? Yes All materials link: https://www.autelrobotics.com/x-star-premium/ X-Star Premium Drone

https://tinyurl.com/y8kpjem3 Lipo Battery - Wild Scorpion Lipo Battery 7.4V 500mAh 25C MAX 2S JST Plug fr Plane https://tinyurl.com/yd9h934o sg90 9g micro servo motor Genuine Mini SG90 9g Servo For RC Helicopter Airplane Car Boat Robot controls TowerPro https://tinyurl.com/y87c5doa Alicenter(TM) 5V/4A RC Model Airplane Helicopter Speed Control 4A UBEC Brushless ESC https://tinyurl.com/ybwwh8te IR DC 3-5.5V Flame Sensor Module Detector Smart sense red KY- 026 for Arduino, Temperature Detecting using MCU Education DIY projects, RBTMKR https://tinyurl.com/ybn54hd6 Elegoo Mega 2560 Project The Most Complete Ultimate Starter Kit w/ TUTORIAL for Arduino Mega2560 UNO Nano https://tinyurl.com/yddsblpx RadioLink 2.4G Telemetry 6CH 6 channel RC Controller Transmitter and Receiver GA Weight and measurement of the fire extinguisher bomb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCRJSJPYy2A Material of the fire extinguisher bomb: https://www.amazon.com/Extinguisher-Suppression-Device-Safety-Product/dp/B01JVXFQ6E/ ref=sr_1_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1507167925&sr=1-2&keywords=Fire+Extinguisher+Ball Styrofoam, fire extinguisher powder, fuse, and gunpowder https://darkbluebit.com/arduino/fire-detector/ (arduino)

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