| CPC G01W 1/02 (2013.01) [G01J 5/00 (2013.01); G01K 13/00 (2013.01); G01H 3/00 (2013.01); G01J 2005/0077 (2013.01); Y02A 90/10 (2018.01)] | 17 Claims |
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1. A system for monitoring wildfires enabling firefighting decisions to be made in real-time or near real time for given areas based on data from those areas, comprising:
(a) at least one unmanned real-time portable wildfire data acquisition unit (DAU) located in a given area; and
(b) at least one remote data integration and display station (DIDS) which comprises an interface with a system user in the form of a combined graphical and text based display;
wherein information gathered by the at least one DAU is sent to and displayed on the DIDS in a combined graphical and text-based format overlaid on an area map showing the position of the at least one DAU to provide a user with area specific real-time or near-real time information regarding fire position and fire movement to allow real-time or near real-time firefighting decisions to be made,
wherein the at least one DAU, comprises:
A) a working head comprising a housing, a plurality of sensors, and control and communication electronics;
B) a power source connected to the control and communication electronics;
wherein the plurality of sensors comprise a plurality of transducers with at least three transducers selected from a first group consisting of: (1) at least one wind speed to electrical signal transducer, (2) at least one wind direction to electrical signal transducer, (3) at least one humidity to electrical signal transducer, (4) at least one air temperature to electrical signal transducer, (5) at least one surface temperature to electrical signal transducer, (6) at least one gravity direction to electrical signal transducer, (7) at least one compass direction to electrical signal transducer, (8) at least one GPS location to electrical signal transducer, (9) at least one GPS orientation to electrical signal transducer, (10) at least one level to electrical signal transducer, and (11) at least one barometric pressure to electrical signal transducer; and
wherein the plurality of sensors further comprise at least one transducer selected from a second group consisting of: (1) at least one visible imaging to electrical signal transducer, (2) at least one IR imaging to electrical signal transducer, and (3) a plurality of differently oriented non-imaging IR to electrical signal transducers; and
wherein the plurality of sensors further comprise at least two transducers selected from a third group consisting of: (1) at least one electrical signal to radio wave transducer, (2) at least one radio wave to electrical signal transducer, (3) at least one sound to electrical signal transducer, (4) at least one user input to electrical signal transducer, (5) at least one electrical signal to user understandable output signal transducer; and (6) a power source power level transducer; and
wherein the control and communication electronics comprise circuitry configured to provide a plurality of functions, comprising: (1) sending radio signals carrying data derived from a plurality of the transducers (2) receiving radio signals and modifying a behavior of the DAU according to received signals; and (3) providing at least one function selected from a fourth group consisting of: (a) analyzing data obtained from at least one transducer to yield trend information from that transducer, (b) analyzing data obtained from at least one transducer and making decisions to maintain or modify the type of data being transmitted, (c) analyzing data obtained from at least one transducer and making decisions to maintain or modify a power of a transmitted signal, (d) analyzing data obtained from at least one transducer and making decisions to maintain or modify an electromagnetic frequency of a signal that is being transmitted, (e) analyzing data obtained from at least one transducer making decisions to maintain or modify a time frequency of signals being transmitted, and (f) analyzing data obtained from at least one transducer and making decisions to maintain or modify an operational mode of the DAU, and
wherein the DAU further comprises:
C) at least one actuator configured to implement at least one function selected from a fifth group consisting of: (1) modifying an observation direction of the working head, (2) changing a height of the working head, (3) changing a vertical orientation of the working head, (4) relatively moving a thermal shield and the working head to provide at least partial thermal shielding of the working head from damaging heat or radiation; and
D) electronic circuitry controlling the at least one actuator to provide the selected function in response to at least one control signal arising from a sixth group consisting of: (1) a single transducer reading, (2) a plurality of transducer readings, (3) analysis of one or more transducer reading provided by the electronic circuitry forming part of the DAU, and (4) a receiving radio signal.
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