prijava
NICOSIA, October 22 (FENA) - Drones, sensors and cameras with the use of artificial intelligence could represent a solution to the devastating fires that ravaged Greece this summer, as well as those that other countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, face every year.
The introduction of a pilot system for early fire detection, a technological solution implemented in cooperation with the mobile operator Cyta and the start-up company Probotek as part of Huawei's Smart & Green Village program was presented in Cyprus. The upgraded system allows direct connection and communication with the drone that can be controlled from anywhere in the world via a 5G mobile network. The operator is assisted by artificial intelligence that enables real-time video analysis.
Radoslaw Kedzia, Vice President for Central and Eastern Europe and the Nordic region at Huawei
Vice President of Huawei for Central and Eastern Europe and the Nordic region, Radoslaw Kedzia, explained that the first phase of the technology was implemented last year in Greece, and an upgraded version of intelligent fire detection was presented in Cyprus. He is convinced that technology can solve many problems facing humanity, including climate change.
Technology should not be an opponent of nature, but help nature to develop, he added, convinced that with the solution of the start-up Probotek, they are one step closer to a safer future.
Executive Director of Probotek, George Delaportas, pointed out that the first fifteen minutes are critical for extinguishing the fire.
"This is the rule of the first 15 minutes. The sooner we detect a fire, the more time we have to put it out. In a pilot project in Greece, a fire was detected in an average of 2.5 minutes. Probotek wants to be faster, but at the same time they want as few false alarms as possible," Delaportas said, adding that the platform they developed enables the coordinated work of all services involved in fighting fires, and drones are also helped by sensors placed on trees.
A drone used for fire detection
They plan to set up charging stations for drones on the forest edges so that they can automatically take off and land and recharge, and their cloud solution also enables live streaming of videos recorded by the drone. As soon as it detects a fire, it sends an SMS, e-mail or calls the competent person so that the extinguishing can start as soon as possible. In the future, they plan to test even larger drones, ones that will be able to carry special fire extinguisher balls that can be used to throw water or other agent to extinguish the fire or at least reduce it in the initial stage until the arrival of fire crews.
Although it is a test project, it is certain that in the foreseeable future it will be implemented in many countries whose authorities are facing catastrophic fires that destroy nature, take human lives and cause great material damage. Bearing in mind that in Herzegovina every year hundreds of fires destroy much of the area, and BiH does not even have adequate means and equipment for fire suppression, investing in this type of advanced project could be a good solution in the future. Early detection of fires is a key problem, because it often takes several hours in BiH before the fire is recorded, especially in uninhabited and inaccessible areas.
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