Extinguishment of fire in aboveground floors brings many difficulties, with the most significant being limited access for firemen to aboveground floors of the building. They often need to use ladders and enter the floor through a window, taking a lot of time while the fire may continue to grow. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can quickly access the window, begin the extinguishment early, and reduce the growth of the fire, while the firemen gain the time necessary for accessing the floor. This project aims to design a UAV suitable for autonomous extinguishment of fires in the above-ground floors of buildings using its onboard sensors only. The primary system detects fires in thermal images and localizes the fires in the world using an onboard depth camera. The localized fires are then used to optimally position the UAV to effectively discharge an ampoule filled with a fire extinguishant from an onboard launcher. The primary motivation is hence to extinguish fires through windows and the surrounding area to provide firemen the access to the floor and decrease the fire growth rate. The use of a UAV is not limited to fire extinguishment only, but the UAV can also be used for investigating the floor or searching for survivors. However, the fundamental purpose is to extinguish fires in the interior of the building from the exterior.

Preliminary study is available here.

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