Costs in developing wildfires technologies

XPRIZE

In designing the prize (click "show" below to review the proposed prize design), we need to understand how much teams will need to spend in competing for the prize.



Do you have any experience developing solutions that might compete in this prize (i.e. cameras, drones, algorithms, etc.), and if so, do you have any ballpark estimates for what competitors might have to spend in order to compete for this prize?

Please share any insight or examples you may have in the comments below!

Proposed Prize (click "show" to view):

Wildfire XPRIZE - Rapid, precise and autonomous detection and suppression of wildfires to prevent the loss of life and assets

The Winning Team will autonomously detect and extinguish a spreading wildfire in a large, controlled area in 10 minutes or less.

The prize design:
Each finalist team will be assigned a 1,000 km2 (20X20 mile) grid. On test day, in that grid, XPRIZE will create several small, decoy stationary fires and one hazardous target fire. Once the fire is moving, or reaches 2 meters in diameter, the team will have 10 minutes to autonomously extinguish the target fire and any spot fires, while leaving the decoy fires untouched.

NickAzer

The cost for teams to develop their solutions is a critical component of any prize competition.

We also have a new discussion on the current costs to suppress wildfires - an area where innovation could potentially bring great benefits. Please also visit there and leave any feedback or examples you might have!

cedwards

Just some simple thoughts: It seems there is two technical parts to be considered for costs: a) rapid detection and b) rapid extinguishment of wildfires. The technologies and costs for development of these two may be quite different. The rapid detection part could be associated with mobility of sensors, wireless communications, data processing and analysis; The extinguishment part could be associated with hard challenges in precision targeting, chemistry, maybe delivery of pressurized materials, with significant safety concerns. Not to say the detection part is straightforward in any way, but the extinguishment side with lots of hard physics issues to deal with may be especially challenging, leading to high development complexity and cost (assuming the solution involves something other than dumping water).

CamCarbonCapture

We have a by-product from our CCU technology solution that we believe could be used as a fire block deployed by airplane in the path of a forest fire. Our issue is that this is a side topic, not our main business so we would be looking for a partner company to run a trial and carry that cost. Can this competition enable those seeking a solution to find us and can it facilitate the design and funding of a trial?

Eti

@CamCarbonCapture and @cedwards you've raised an interesting topic we hope to address in this prize: integration of the different aspects of firefighting (i.e., detection, response, and suppression materials). @CamCarbonCapture to your question, we are looking into incorporating into the competition the opportunity for teams working on different aspects of the prize to meet each other; is there anything specific that will help a team like yours? To your question re trial, testing is part of the XPrize competition.

DanSelz

@CamCarbonCapture following up on Eti's comment above, yes you raise a great point. Would love to know more about your solution so we can think through mechanisms for teams to connect. Are there more details you can share either publicly or privately with us? Thanks!

Simonyu

Just received a patent allowance. Drone to fight fire without use water or chemical.
see www.RoboticVectorControl.com New concept to fight wildland fire.