An Update on our Collaboration with Sikorsky
Rain and Sikorsky demonstrate early detection and fast response to wildfires with an autonomous Black Hawk® helicopter.
Together, we have completed flight tests demonstrating how an autonomous helicopter can be quickly launched to suppress wildfires.
At Rain we are developing technology to adapt autonomous aircraft with the intelligence to understand and extinguish wildfires in their initial stage. During the past few months, we often found ourselves on the flight field at Sikorsky headquarters in Stratford, Connecticut to conduct a series of exercises concluding with jointly demonstrating autonomous fire suppression operations with a Bambi bucket suspended beneath Sikorsky’s optionally piloted Black Hawk aircraft.
Together, we have just announced a series of first-of-their-kind capabilities that can enable accelerated aerial response to wildfires:
Integrating wildfire early detection cameras (powered by Alchera X’s Firescout AI) with automated aircraft dispatch and routing powered by Rain.
An optionally piloted BLACK HAWK helicopter with Sikorsky’s MATRIX™ flight autonomy system was integrated with Rain’s wildfire mission autonomy system.
Rain’s wildfire mission autonomy system processed imagery from an on-board high-resolution thermal camera to localize, target and suppress the fire, directing both the aircraft’s flight path and water release timing.
The fully integrated solution performed end-to-end autonomous wildfire response, including early detection, dispatch, route planning, preflight, takeoff, flight, Bambi bucket operations, targeting, suppression, and landing.
Rain integrated with Alchera X’s Firescout AI smoke detection cameras for the demonstration. A test plume was detected at Sikorsky’s headquarters, triggering the dispatch of an autonomous Black Hawk helicopter equipped with Sikorsky MATRIX™ and Rain technology. There are already over 1,100 early fire detection cameras in the state of California, with more across the American West.
There are already over 1100 early fire detection cameras installed across the American West. Now, for the first time, that investment can be leveraged to stop fires before they grow out of control with pre-positioned autonomous aircraft.
Recent research shows that a 15-minute reduction in wildfire response times could generate $3.5 to $8.2 billion in economic benefits annually for the state of California alone, as firefighters face increasingly difficult fire conditions, undoing decades of air quality improvement. With 18% of 2021 global fossil fuel CO² emissions generated by wildfires and the 2023 Canadian wildfires emitting over six times the total emissions of the State of California, mitigating emissions from catastrophic wildfires is one of the largest opportunities we have to prevent global temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre industrial average.
“The frequency of wildfires is a growing threat,” Igor Cherepinsky, director of Sikorsky Innovations says. “With Rain, we have flown and demonstrated the potential of an autonomous BLACK HAWK helicopter to suppress a wildfire in its initial stage before it becomes a huge problem.”
Sikorsky’s Optionally Piloted BLACK HAWK® helicopter equipped with MATRIX™ and Rain’s wildfire mission autonomy systems during fire localization and targeting demonstrations at Sikorsky HQ in Stratford, Connecticut.
In collaboration with Sikorsky, we have already shown we can tap into existing fire detection cameras, launch an uncrewed helicopter and accurately drop water onto the fire source using a Bambi bucket suspended below the autonomous aircraft. By pre-positioning autonomous aerial firefighting assets, emergency agencies could quickly and effectively respond to wildland fires 24/7.
Rain is committed to our mission to end catastrophic wildfires. Our progress in recent months, and our work with Sikorsky, make us optimistic and eager to see what the rest of 2024 brings. As always, thanks for following our journey—and stay tuned.
Sikorsky’s Optionally Piloted Black Hawk helicopter with the MATRIX™ autonomy system demonstrates a precision water drop from a Bambi bucket in December 2023 at Sikorsky HQ in Stratford, Connecticut. Rain directed the aircraft to launch, guided it to the fire, and targeted the fire using its wildfire mission autonomy stack.
