How FireDrone aims to revolutionise firefighting with clever technology
When there’s a fire, every second counts. But in complex scenarios, it’s not always safe for rescuers to get an overview of the situation. A team at the Swiss research institute Empa has developed the FireDrone specifically for such cases. It is designed to deliver real-time data from high-risk areas that are too hot for humans and conventional drones. This also makes it extremely interesting for inspecting industrial plants where temperatures can reach up to 200 °C.
The FireDrone is a compact quadcopter surrounded by a novel polyimide aerogel shell. This ultra-light insulating material, originally developed for insulating space suits and spacecraft, protects the drone’s interior from extreme thermal stress. In combination with an integrated cooling system, the drone can operate for several minutes at ambient temperatures of up to 200 °C and deliver high-resolution (thermal) image material.
From research project to market driver
What began as an ambitious academic project has now developed into a promising spin-off. The emotional impetus for the development came from images of the Grenfell Tower disaster in London in 2017. A 24-storey residential tower block in the North Kensington district burned down, killing 72 people. However, the idea behind the FireDrone goes beyond pure firefighting, as it also has enormous potential for use in industrial applications. Wherever facilities such as smelting furnaces, chemical reactors or tanks need to be inspected, the necessary cooling phases have so far resulted in horrendous downtime costs. With the FireDrone, inspections can be carried out ‘hot’ in future, which increases the efficiency of the facilities and improves the safety of personnel.
Despite impressive laboratory results, the team now faces its biggest challenge: transforming a highly complex prototype into a robust, mass-marketable product. Questions about autonomy in radio-interfered environments, long-term financing and integration into existing rescue chains are shaping the start-up’s current development phase.
FireDrone on the Internet: www.firedrone.com
Photo: EMPA
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