[FRIAM] Drones to detect wildfires

Stephen Guerin stephen.guerin at simtable.com
Tue May 25 14:22:36 EDT 2021


 I don't think drones aren't an efficient choice for detection. Stationary
PTZ cameras on ridgetops and citizen phone camera reporting along with 911
calls are soon enough. Where drones are valuable preliminary mapping to
fill in gaps of existing camera viewsheds to get an early sizeup.

We are working with www.alertwildfire.org to calibrate their 1000 cameras
on the ridgetops in the 5 western states of CA, OR, WA, ID and NV. Our bit
is solving for camera pose based on observations of stars to solve for the
9 degrees of freedom of a camera (x, y, z, yaw, pitch, roll, horiz field of
view, vert field of view and lens distortion)

You can see a map of the cameras that we have robotic control of hear with
historical imagery:

http://www.alertwildfire.org/tahoe/index.html?camera=Axis-SodaRidge1&v=7a7f1c3

Once a camera is calibrated each pixel maps to a lat/long if it intersects
the terrain or triangulating 3D points with multiple cameras for sky-based
features.

You can see how we detect locations of fire starts after lightning strikes
on the LNU Complex last summer in Sonama here:
    https://youtu.be/oVAwvs4k1n0

All compute and modeling/sim is in the browser with the camera projections
using WebGL and rendering to 3D terrain.

And how we track perimeters on this example Adams Fire here:
    https://youtu.be/lP7-UhZQ4IY

And here is some live AI looking for smoke in Sonoma that we then map:
   https://fire.aiir.ai/sonoma

We can also calibrate ad hoc imagery coming from citizens based on common
features in already calibrated images or by geopoints or the stars. Here's
an example on the Maria Fire where we took imagery from Twitter from a
private pilot and a second imager from citizen near the freeway.
   https://youtu.be/aJpgDzFhXng

_______________________________________________________________________
Stephen.Guerin at Simtable.com <stephen.guerin at simtable.com>
CEO, Simtable  http://www.simtable.com
1600 Lena St #D1, Santa Fe, NM 87505
office: (505)995-0206 mobile: (505)577-5828
twitter: @simtable
z <http://zoom.com/j/5055775828>oom.simtable.com


On Tue, May 25, 2021 at 11:54 AM Pieter Steenekamp <
pieters at randcontrols.co.za> wrote:

> from wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology
>
> *Synthetic biology* (*SynBio*) is a multidisciplinary area of research
> that seeks to create new biological parts, devices, and systems, or to
> redesign systems that are already found in nature.
>
> It is a branch of science that encompasses a broad range of methodologies
> from various disciplines, such as biotechnology
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology>, genetic engineering
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_engineering>, molecular biology
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_biology>, molecular engineering
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_engineering>, systems biology
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_biology>, membrane science
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_lipid_bilayer>, biophysics
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biophysics>, chemical and biological
> engineering <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_engineering>, electrical
> and computer engineering
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_engineering>, control
> engineering <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_engineering> and evolutionary
> biology <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_biology>.
>
> Due to more powerful genetic engineering
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_engineering> capabilities and
> decreased DNA synthesis and sequencing costs
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencing>, the field of synthetic
> biology is rapidly growing. In 2016, more than 350 companies across 40
> countries were actively engaged in synthetic biology applications; all
> these companies had an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion in the global
> market.[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology#cite_note-1>
>
> On Tue, 25 May 2021 at 19:49, Merle Lefkoff <merlelefkoff at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Marcus, I don't understand your term "synthetic biology."
>>
>> On Tue, May 25, 2021 at 10:24 AM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> So we move from chemical engineering to synthetic biology.   There will
>>> always be mistakes.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Merle Lefkoff
>>> *Sent:* Tuesday, May 25, 2021 10:05 AM
>>> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
>>> friam at redfish.com>
>>> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Drones to detect wildfires
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Marcus, we've been "experimenting" with our terrestrial biome for at
>>> least 10-12,000 years (when the first spade hit the ground).  The time for
>>> more experiments is over....unless they are experiments that help us
>>> understand even more deeply how to restore the Mycelium networks so that
>>> the fungi can solve our climate change challenge.  This is perhaps the most
>>> important task that will save us from extinction.  See Merlin Sheldrake's
>>> book, "Entangled Life" for explanation.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, May 25, 2021 at 8:41 AM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> We won’t realize anything unless the experiments happen.   We may not
>>> learn from experiments, but that is a different issue than the need for the
>>> experiments.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Steve Smith
>>> *Sent:* Tuesday, May 25, 2021 7:46 AM
>>> *To:* friam at redfish.com
>>> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Drones to detect wildfires
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> My father dedicated his life to "forest management" as a professional
>>> forester, trained in biology and range/timber management.   He retired
>>> "early" after 30 years somewhat in disgust over the changing of aesthetics
>>> and perspectives of the United States Forest Service.   He was dedicated
>>> and loyal to the spirit of Aldo Leopold and other early conservationists.
>>> He spent multiple multi-week segments every summer leading (most Zuni and
>>> Hopi native) fire-crews on the West Coast trying ot protec homes and
>>> "valuable timber". We lived on the edge of the first Wilderness (Gila)
>>> created (at the behest of Aldo Leopold) for 2/3 of my growing up years.
>>> My father died 10 years ago (Alzheimers), was cremated, and we (illegall)
>>> spread his cremains in the heart of the Gila with a minor amount of guilt
>>> as he was a (nearly) strict rule follower (yet asked for this).   Within
>>> the year, a serious wildfire complex converged at almost the exact spot we
>>> scattered him (woooOoooooo!).
>>>
>>> Even my Trump-voting (2016) sister and husband are now acknowledging
>>> that his life/profession were dedicated to a project that was fundamentally
>>> "unwise".    They *were* (for the most part) doing the best they knew how.
>>> Most everything they did (from stopping wildfires at the first opportunity)
>>> to running dual bulldozers across landscapes with a chain between them to
>>> clear the juniper trees from a landscape to allow more grass (for cattle)
>>> to grow was "well intended", but it was *range* and *timber* management not
>>> "grassland" and "forest" management as they called it.  The goal was to
>>> maximize the "productivity" of the public lands under their management
>>> (dept of Agriculture_.   The Bureau of Land Management (BLM dept of
>>> Interior) was know to be *worse* in the sense that their rules on cattle
>>> and mining were much less careful of protecting the landscape and biome.
>>> The National Parks were derided by both the Forest Service and the BLM for
>>> being "much too restrictive" (no "harvesting of resources"!!!!)
>>>
>>> And yet NOW we realize how "unwise" all of that was.   But in the same
>>> breath we suggest that all of our exploitative depradations of the planet's
>>> "resources" are necessary and possibly "a really good thing"...  and I am
>>> sure that in another 20 or 50 years we will be lamenting *all* of the
>>> things that today we are promoting wholeheartedly in the name of
>>> "progress".
>>>
>>> This is part of how I became a neo-Luddite.
>>>
>>> - Steve
>>>
>>> On 5/25/21 2:50 AM, Pieter Steenekamp wrote:
>>>
>>> Let's hope they are a bit more wise in managing the wildfires in the
>>> future than they were in the 20th century.
>>>
>>>
>>> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/14/california-fire-suppression-forests-tinderbox
>>>
>>> Before this unprecedented era of mega-blazes on the US west coast,
>>> California’s forests had a canny, ingenious way of avoiding destructive
>>> worst-case forest fire scenarios. By periodically removing the grasses,
>>> shrubs and young trees – known as the forest understory – California
>>> <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/california> avoided fires growing
>>> to destructive intensities before the 20th century. The way this was done?
>>> Fire.
>>>
>>> Every five to 15 years, groundfires would burn through the forest,
>>> killing off the undergrowth on a regular basis, thus removing the material
>>> that can act as tinder and kindle fires. Such groundfires were sparked by
>>> lightning or by indigenous people who used sophisticated burning practices
>>> to facilitate crop growing and hunting. Because the fires occurred
>>> frequently, the understory rarely had time to build up enough combustible
>>> material for the fires to reach the canopies of the mature trees – which is
>>> what causes the large, devastating fires we are seeing now. As a result,
>>> overstory trees might get wounded by the groundfires, but they would rarely
>>> get killed.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, 25 May 2021 at 10:22, Jochen Fromm <jofr at cas-group.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> Due to climate change there will be more and more wildfires in
>>> California, Arizona and New Mexico in the coming years. Drones could help
>>> to detect wildfires early.
>>>
>>>
>>> https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/sensors/remote-sensing/drones-sensors-wildfire-detection
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -J.
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
>>> Center for Emergent Diplomacy
>>> emergentdiplomacy.org
>>>
>>> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
>>>
>>>
>>> mobile:  (303) 859-5609
>>> skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
>>>
>>> twitter: @merle110
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
>> Center for Emergent Diplomacy
>> emergentdiplomacy.org
>> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
>>
>> mobile:  (303) 859-5609
>> skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
>> twitter: @merle110
>>
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>>
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