Rain and Sikorsky Collaborate to Advance Rapid Response Capabilities for Aerial Wildland Firefighting
Sikorsky’s Optionally Piloted BLACK HAWK helicopter with the MATRIX autonomy system demonstrates contested logistics resupply without humans on board at U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground, October 2022.
The MATRIX system forms the core of DARPA’s ALIAS (Aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System) project, designed to exponentially improve the flight safety and efficiency of rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. Rain and Sikorsky will collaborate to demonstrate the capability of autonomously flown helicopters to attack wildland fires at the earliest stage. Photo by Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company.
The two companies will demonstrate how an uncrewed BLACK HAWK® helicopter with Rain’s Wildfire Mission Autonomy System could respond rapidly to suppress incipient wildfires
We’re excited to announce our collaboration with Sikorsky today at the UP.Summit, which is an annual, invitation-only gathering that aims to rethink the future of transportation.
Together, Rain and Sikorsky will explore how Sikorsky’s MATRIX™ autonomy suite operating with Rain’s Wildfire Mission Autonomy System can launch uncrewed helicopters to drop water on wildfires within minutes of detection. This collaborative effort will use Rain's system to upload mission commands to Sikorsky’s Optionally Piloted BLACK HAWK helicopter with no crew on board for the fastest response time.
“MATRIX executes a full mission plan by taking into account mission goals and constraints, aircraft performance, obstacles, weather, and topography,” said Igor Cherepinsky, Sikorsky Innovations director. “The system is fully integrated with the flight controls, allowing the aircraft to fly with high levels of autonomy in all environmental conditions.”
To date, MATRIX has been tested on 10 different rotary and fixed-wing aircraft and can be applied to existing or new build applications.
Simulation of wildfire risk before and after prepositioning autonomous firefighting aircraft throughout high wildfire risk areas. Rain graphic.
Rain’s Wildfire Mission Autonomy System is designed to equip fire agencies with the capabilities to rapidly respond to ignitions in hard-to-access regions in varied terrain, supporting fire agencies with new tools in their mission to prevent catastrophic wildfires in the areas they serve.
Rain integrates with early wildfire detection networks to rapidly dispatch autonomous aircraft and significantly improve fire response times. Onboard the aircraft, the Rain Wildfire Mission Autonomy System identifies and locates wildfire, develops a suppression strategy, and plans flight path and drop timing to enable on-target delivery of suppressant. Throughout operations, the Wildfire Mission Autonomy System shares intelligence and plans, providing firefighters with situational awareness and oversight of the mission to ensure safety and coordination.
In spite of the best efforts of skilled fire teams, suppression costs are rising without containing the flames. “What we are seeing is a dramatic increase in extreme fire behavior.” —Cal Fire Division Chief Jon Heggie
We’re committed to our mission to end catastrophic wildfire, and our collaboration with Sikorsky is an exciting next step for us at Rain. See our press release for more details and thanks for your continued support.
