AI-powered drones track down fires in German forests
"Fires are spreading much faster and more aggressively than in the past. That also means we have to react more quickly," Carsten Brinkschulte, the CEO of the German firm Dryad, told AFP at a demonstration of the technology outside Berlin.
Once a rarity, the German capital has to get used to more wildfires. Flames ripped through a forest on the city's western edge in the midst of a 2022 heatwave that saw several wildfires spring up in Germany.
The sort of tinderbox conditions which promote blazes -- where heat, drought and strong winds dry out the landscape -- have increased with climate change.
Wildfires have reached the point where they were "basically unstoppable", said Lindon Pronto, senior wildfire management expert at the European Forest Institute.
That is why action is needed to develop tools to "address fire in the prevention phase, during the operational phase, and also post-fire", said Pronto.
Advertisement
'Prevent a disaster'
Dryad is in the running with 29 other teams from around the globe for a multi-million-dollar prize to develop the ability to autonomously put out fires within 10 minutes.
During Dryad's demonstration on Thursday -- the first for a computer-steered wildfire detection drone according to the company -- chemicals in smoke from burning wood were picked up by sensors distributed in the forest.
The signal was relayed back to the company's platform which released the drone from the orb. The unit rose above the trees, charting a zig-zag course to track down the precise location and extent of the fire.
Firefighters using the information collected by the drone would be able "to respond much more efficiently and quickly and prevent a disaster", Brinkschulte said.
Dryad eventually hopes to have the drone descend below the canopy and put out the fire using a novel technology: a "sonic cannon" blasting low-frequency sound waves at the right pressure to suppress small fires.
An experimental acoustic suppression method, if it can be realised, would save the drone from carrying "large amounts of heavy water", making the unit more nimble and effective, according to Brinkschulte.
Advertisement
'Civilisation meets nature'
Technologies like Dryad's are a step towards putting out fires "without putting people's lives in danger", said Pronto, a native of California, where recent wildfires have had a devastating impact.
Huge blazes in Los Angeles in January killed 29 people, razed more than 10,000 homes and caused some $250 billion (€231 billion) in damage, according to estimates by the private meteorological firm AccuWeather.
The greatest benefits of an autonomous fire prevention system would be in areas where "civilisation meets nature", Brinkschulte said.
Such crossover zones are the most vulnerable to man-made wildfires and "where the risk to life and limb is naturally highest".
The company hopes to bring the drone to market in 2026, with the first deployment likely to be outside Europe.
"These systems still need to have the regulatory framework to be able to operate commercially," Brinkschulte said, adding that Dryad was aiming for deployment in Europe in the "coming years"
A couple of kinks need to be worked out before then, however. The first attempt to respond to the dummy fire on Thursday was held up by a faulty GPS signal.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Int'l Business Times
10 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
groundcover Launches LLM Observability Solution, Promising Cost and Performance Transparency in AI Workflows
In a move that could significantly impact how organizations monitor and troubleshoot AI applications, groundcover—a next-gen observability platform powered by eBPF—has announced a new solution focused on large language models (LLMs) and complex AI workflows. The platform aims to bridge a critical gap in AI operations: providing deep, real-time insight without the need for intrusive instrumentation or shared data. As AI models grow more sophisticated—expanding beyond simple prompts to multi-turn conversations, tool integrations, and decision-making agents—traditional monitoring tools increasingly fall short. They often require additional code, middleware, or data egress, creating barriers to deployment and compliance challenges, especially in sensitive environments. groundcover's new LLM Observability solution appears designed to address these challenges head-on. By leveraging eBPF—a low-level Linux technology capable of capturing system activity with minimal overhead—the platform offers a comprehensive view of AI interactions directly within the customer's environment. This includes tracking prompts, completions, latency, token usage, errors, and reasoning paths—all without sending any data outside the organization's cloud. A Game-Changer for AI Reliability and Trust For engineers and data scientists, understanding where AI systems go wrong—particularly with issues like hallucinations or unexpected responses—has been a persistent headache. groundcover's ability to trace the "reasoning path" and analyze prompt drift promises to improve model debugging and reduce erroneous outputs. "AI applications today are too complex for traditional observability methods," said Orr Benjamin, VP of Product at groundcover. "Our approach delivers complete visibility into AI pipelines with zero instrumentation and no data leaving the environment, which is essential for trust, compliance, and operational efficiency." It's a significant step forward in making AI deployment more reliable and transparent, especially as organizations face mounting pressure to ensure their AI systems are both responsible and performant. Market Recognition and Strategic Advantages groundcover's technology isn't just novel—it's gaining industry recognition. The platform was recently included in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms, a testament to its innovative architecture and rapid growth. Its "Bring Your Own Cloud" (BYOC) model offers organizations flexibility and security advantages, allowing them to retain control over their data while enjoying extensive observability coverage. With nearly 70% of organizations now leveraging LLMs and AI-powered workflows, the demand for advanced observability solutions is mounting. As AI continues to integrate deeper into business-critical systems, the ability to monitor, debug, and optimize these models in production will be crucial—and increasingly complex. groundcover's zero-instrumentation approach could set a new standard, enabling organizations to maintain visibility, ensure compliance, and improve AI models faster and more securely than ever before. As AI adoption accelerates, solutions like groundcover's may become essential tools in managing the operational transparency and robustness necessary for trustworthy AI. How well these tools perform in real-world, high-stakes environments remains to be seen, but their arrival marks a notable step forward in AI observability.
Int'l Business Times
4 days ago
- Int'l Business Times
After Repeated Explosions, New Test For Musk's Megarocket
Elon Musk's SpaceX announced Friday that its Starship megarocket is scheduled to blast off on a new test flight next weekend after recent attempts have ended in fiery explosions. The biggest and most powerful launch vehicle in history is planned to return Americans to the Moon -- and is central to the dreams of colonizing Mars envisioned by Musk, the world's richest person. But repeated explosions that sent debris raining down over Caribbean islands and disrupted flights have piled pressure onto SpaceX to pull off a smoother trial run. The rocket's 10th test flight is set to launch as soon as August 24 from the company's Starbase facility in Texas, SpaceX said on its website. During two test flights earlier this year, the rocket's upper stage -- which is the spacecraft intended to carry crew and cargo -- erupted in fiery cascades not long after launch. Starship managed to make it to space during the last test in late May, however it then blew up when a fuel leak caused it to lose control. The rocket's propulsion system was also supposed to execute a planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico -- but it disintegrated before reaching the water. Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, the black-and-white behemoth is designed to eventually be fully reusable and launch at relatively low cost. SpaceX has been betting that its "fail fast, learn fast" ethos -- which helped it dominate commercial spaceflight -- will once again pay off. But the latest string of setbacks, which also includes an explosion during a routine ground test in June, has raised serious questions about Starship's progress. Musk -- who is known for making extremely ambitious proposals -- maintains that the rocket will launch its first uncrewed missions to Mars next year. SpaceX has also been sharply criticized over the impact its launches have on people and the environment near where its rockets blast off. In June, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum threatened to sue SpaceX over falling debris and contamination from its launches. More Starship tests are expected in the coming months, however, after the US aviation regulator approved the number of its annual launches increasing from five to 25. The Starship rocket pictured before exploding during a test flight in late May, 2025 AFP
DW
4 days ago
- DW
World's first humanoid robot games begin in China – DW – 08/15/2025
More or less human-like robots played soccer, table tennis, ran, danced and, often, fell over at the kickoff of the first humanoid robot games in China. More than 500 humanoid robots in 280 teams from 16 countries are competing in 26 events ranging from soccer and boxing to sorting medicine and cleaning up at the first World Humanoid Robot Games. Three days of competitions began in Beijing, China, on Thursday evening as the country steps up efforts to develop robots powered by artificial intelligence. "We come here to play and to win. But we are also interested in research," said Max Polter, a member of the HTWK Robots football team from Germany, affiliated with Leipzig University of Applied Sciences, told Reuters news agency. "You can test a lot of interesting, new and exciting approaches in this contest. If we try something and it doesn't work, we lose the game," Polter said. "That's sad, but it is better than investing a lot of money into a product that fails." The robots crashed into each other and toppled over repeatedly during football matches, while another fell over mid-sprint during running events. The AFP news agency reported that one of the fastest robots finished a 1,500-meter race in 6:29:37 — well off the current human record of 3:26:00. At the kung fu competition, a child-sized robot resembling one from the popular Transformer series tried a complicated move only to fall on its face and spin on the floor in an attempt to get back up. The crowd, however, cheered happily. Chinese officials made humanoids the "center of their national strategy," the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) wrote in a paper published Thursday. "The government wants to showcase its competence and global competitiveness in this field of technology," it added. In March, China announced plans for a one-trillion-yuan fund (€119 billion, $139 billion) to support technology startups, including those in robotics and AI. Joost Weerheim, part of the Dutch five-a-side robot football team, told AFP he was impressed by the skill of China's teams. "I think right now if they are not already the world leader, they are very, very quickly becoming it," he said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Tickets to the humanoid games at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval, built for the 2022 Winter Olympics, range from 180 yuan (about €22, $25) to 580 yuan (about €69, $80). China has staged several robotics events in recent months, including what it called the world'sfirst humanoid robot marathon, a robot conference and the opening of retail stores dedicated to humanoid robots. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
