Bristol robotics team awarded international XPRIZE for wildfire drone technology

The Bristol researchers are part of AURA Foresight, an international team that has developed autonomous technology capable of detecting potential wildfire ignitions within minutes and coordinating rapid responses to prevent small ignitions from developing into destructive wildfires. The team was one of three finalists selected from more than 130 teams worldwide to compete in the final XPRIZE Wildfire competition challenge, held in Alaska in June. The $11 million global competition was launched in 2023 to accelerate innovation in firefighting technologies.

During the challenge, the team deployed its system to detect, verify and coordinate responses to wildfire ignitions across a 270-square-mile (700 km²) wilderness area and successfully launched a fully autonomous swarm of drones to respond to potential fires within just 10 minutes.

AURA Foresight is a collaboration between the UK-based AURA team, led by the University of Bristol, and Australia's Fire Foresight. The platform continuously monitors landscapes using optical and thermal sensors, automatically identifies potential ignitions using AI, dispatches flying robots to verify the fires are real, and coordinate rapid intervention before small fires can grow into destructive wildfires.

Designed to intervene at the earliest possible stage, the technology aims to contain fires while they are still small and manageable, helping reduce environmental damage, economic losses and risks to human life.

Central to the team's approach has been close collaboration with researchers at the University of Sheffield, firefighters in the UK and Australia, and emergency response professionals. The consortium works directly with Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service in the UK, as well as wildfire response experts in Canada and Australia, to ensure the technology addresses real-world operational challenges and integrates seamlessly into existing emergency response workflows.

The University of Sheffield developed the vision detection with thermal and electro-optical camera on the UAV swarm that was demonstrated in Alaska.

By combining frontline expertise with cutting-edge robotics and artificial intelligence, the team is developing technology that supports firefighters, strengthens emergency response capabilities and could help reshape how the world tackles wildfires.

Sabine Hauert, team co-lead of AURA Foresight and Professor of swarm engineering at the University of Bristol, said: "This award is a fantastic recognition of years of collaboration between researchers, firefighters and technology specialists working towards a worldwide challenge: preventing small ignitions from becoming devastating wildfires.”

Andrea Santy, XPRIZE Wildfire executive program director, explained: “Destructive wildfires are becoming more extreme, costly and difficult to manage, making faster, more effective approaches increasingly urgent.

“The three finalists pushed the boundaries of what is possible today, demonstrating meaningful advances in wildfire detection and response while helping identify where continued innovation is needed to move these technologies toward real-world deployment at scale.”

Dr Georgios Tzoumas, team co-lead of AURA Foresight and senior research associate at the University of Bristol, added: “Our ambition was always to deliver practical, affordable tools that help emergency services detect and contain wildfires before they become major disasters. We are incredibly proud that our research expertise is now helping to tackle a global challenge that could better protect communities, ecosystems and critical infrastructure."

AURA Foresight has been designed to be practical, affordable and easy out-of-the-box deployment with minimal setup requirements. It is able to be adapted to any environment, from forests and remote wilderness to critical infrastructure corridors and built on commercially available technologies, making advanced wildfire protection accessible and achievable for organisations of all sizes.

The consortium includes the University of Bristol, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of Sheffield, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, Fire Foresight, Indicium Dynamics, Robotic Cats, Taz Drone Solutions, SkyFly Drones, Southern Denmark University, University of Manchester, and Little Place Labs.

Together, these partners combine world-leading expertise in swarm robotics, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, computer vision, aerial robotics, wildfire operations and field deployment. By bringing together researchers, engineers, firefighters and technology innovators from across three continents, AURA Foresight is demonstrating how international collaboration can accelerate solutions to one of the world's most pressing climate challenges.

A video demonstrating the drone technology and how it could transform the way the world detects and responds to wildfires can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=32L6Il6ZkAQ

www.bristol.ac.uk