Uploaded April 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Read more on the CMU School of Computer Science Website:
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/news/2024/wildfire-drones

Learn more from the researchers here:
theairlab.org/wildfire

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/

https://imaging.cs.cmu.edu

We are conducting research to develop Unmanned Aerial Systems to aid in wildfire monitoring. The hazardous, dynamic, and visually degraded environment of wildfire gives rise to many unsolved fundamental research challenges.

Planning: how should the system decide when and where to observe in a constantly evolving and uncertain environment?

Perception: how do we overcome severe visual degradation to detect crew members and obstacles?

Forecasting: how can we use our observations to predict how the environment will evolve in the short and long term?

Integration: how do we incorporate all these challenges into a cohesive closed-loop system?

We aim to conduct integrative research that enables autonomous systems to operate robustly under high uncertainty and risk.