Development of a Free Fall Drone for Firefighting Applications

Forest fires affect directly the ecological system and cause the destruction of thousands of hectares as well as the loss of houses, properties, and agricultural land. In this paper, the design and development of a free-fall precision aerial delivery system for firefighting applications is presented. The developed free fall drone can be thrown from aircrafts, blimps, or quadcopters and then directs itself autonomously to reach the desired goal. The drone is to be used in wildfire firefighting operations to deliver retardant mixtures, extinguisher solutions, or medical equipment. A special navigation algorithm based on image processing and relative positioning is used to correct the drone path, with control surfaces similar to aircraft canards used as the system actuators. A small parachute is applied to control the falling speed of the drone and ensure free fall condition. Simulation results in MATLAB/Simulink environment show acceptable performance of PID controllers used with the drone. Experimental tests show promising results for the use of the free fall drone in firefighting missions.