FLAMELESS
A cost-efficient sensor able to detect wildfires at their source and relay information to the fire department.
THE ISSUE
Living in California, I have seen the devastating consequences of wildfires that have unfortunately only increased in the past few years. Even with all of the damage being done not just to California, but other places like Australia, there is no effective and cheap solution to detect wildfires at their source. Most of the technological resources go towards quelling fires after they begin. Additionally, fire departments are mainly notified of a fire if someone reports it. By the time a fire has already grown to a size that is deemed dangerous, the damage has already been done.
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RESEARCH AND DESIGN
As part of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition, I became a leader for our STEM project to detect wildfires. Our first steps involved extensive research - existing technology, fireproof materials, factors affecting the growth of wildfires, long range networking systems - the list goes on. We also reached out to our local community, contacting the fire department, PG&E, and receiving testimonials from people who had directly been affected by wildfires. After gathering initial information, we began to construct a preliminary design for our sensor using a Raspberry Pi. Once certain threshold values were reached for temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and smoke, the device would alert the fire department. We presented our prototype to the Climate Action Summit, a hackathon creating solutions for climate change. Hearing back from climate experts and other professionals in marketing, AI, etc. we brainstormed a second solution.
DEVELOPMENT
Our second solution consisted of seven parts:
Nodes: Collects data
Gateway: Receives and transmits data to the Things Network
TTN (The Things Network): Sends data to Cayenne
Cayenne: Displays data in graphs and neat manner
LoRa: Low-power, wide-area network (essential for device that will need to be sustainable for long periods of time in rural areas)
3D-modeled case made of ASA Filament (weatherproof and environmentally-friendly)
Web application for fire department to monitor fire locations and factor values (ex. temperature)
After talking with the fire department about our second iteration and running tests in a controlled environment, we presented our product to a panel of judges for the final pitch of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow. A week later, we were named the National Winners of the Competition, earning our school $100,000 in technology. Our work was far from over, however. In the future, we will test our device with the fire department throughout our district, reduce the pricing and size of our product to increase scalability, and develop a mesh network of sensors to ensure that if one sensor were to burn in a fire, the other ones will still be able to carry the message.
