Artificial Intelligence, drones to help fight wildfires

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Robots, improved satellite maps and a=Artificial Intelligence (AI) are just a few of the tools firefighters may have at their disposal.

On Thursday, a South by Southwest (SXSW) panel discussed the future of wildfire detection and response.

Former firefighter and the panel moderator Jay Stalnacker said this new technology is the future of firefighting.

“We’ll see a lot of innovative technology around AI, taking data, bring it in, making good maps,” Stalnacker said. “Then making it make sense to the robot or the autonomous part of it.”

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Stalnacker said there’s everything from sound waves that can put a fire out to smoke sensors that can determine the difference between a campfire and wildland fire.

One thing that can be a barrier to new tech is the cost. Stalnacker said this needs to happen at an affordable price.

“Some of this technology, satellite technology is expensive. You’re talking billions of dollars,” Stalnacker said. “So really overcoming those financial burdens also is a challenge in this new technology.”

Stalnacker said it must be scaled in a way that all communities have access to it.

Austin Energy to use AI for wildfire detection

This isn’t the first time new innovation for firefighting has come to Austin.

Back in October, KXAN’s Grace Reader reported on the city council approving a contract between an AI company and Austin Energy.

The company uses 360-cameras and AI to detect wildfire smoke and notify fire crews as soon as possible.

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“We can also monitor and see where it [a fire] is in relation to our infrastructure, and so if we do have something going towards our infrastructure we might be able to shut off the power and then make it safer and help the firefighters out,” said Chris Vetromile, Austin Energy wildfire program manager.

The plan was to have the tech in multiple locations around Austin and up and running before fire season.

Wildfire innovation competition

Stalnacker is the technical lead for the XPRIZE Foundation’s wildfire $11 million competition.

“The prize aims to transform current wildfire management approaches through the development of new technologies that can rapidly and accurately detect, characterize, and respond to wildfires before they become destructive,” the foundation’s website said.

It’s incentivizing the innovation of firefighting technologies.

“These technologies come and most of them are here, most of them exist today. They’re just not being applied to this problem,” Stalnacker said. “With XPRIZE we’re trying to get the technologists, the innovators to apply it to the problem.”

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