After team norms and team member strengths/weaknesses, we did initial research on the fire drone to make sure the project was viable.

Interviewed Francois (Maelle's Uncle) about his thoughts on the fire fighting drone and problems that fire fighters had.

• Japan makes drones that put out fires on high buildings to avoid traffic and can quickly fly to high floor and shoot water

• In France, they detect fires by stationing people on top of tall water towers to look out for smoke

• When fires become get big enough they are detectable by satellites

• It is hard to fight wild fires because sometimes the biggest trucks that hold the most water aren't mobile and need to stay on paved roads.

• Dubai was able to use drones to zap clouds and create rain. They weren't able to control it and it created floods

• Fire fighters use drones when fighting agricultural fires to locate the animals and keep them safe.

• Fire fighters use foam and fire retardant to helps low the fire

• Fire retardant dissolves and doesn't work when it gets wet

• Foam takes time to dispense and isn't automated

• Foam reduced the oxygen the fire can get. We need to remove one of the elements from the triangle of fire

• He recommend a swarm of drones maybe coming off of a plane

• Making predictions where the fire will move based on the wind and terrain

Some of the highlights of the online research that we did:

• Chinese Professor using drones utilizing AI for automated 24-hour monitoring and detection of wildfires

• Wildfires move faster when moving uphill, wildfires can spread faster than a human can run

• NASA working on a system of high flying drones to monitor large forests

• Satellites used to recognize wildfires within a few hours

• Most wildfires are recognized within 8 hours by a bystander calling in and reporting it to the police

• AI has been implemented to recognize fires automatically in the Netherlands (RGB and Thermal cameras are used)

• Fires travel faster uphill then down hill

• We had the idea to have a foam dispensing drone that predicts which direction the fire will move and create a thicker barrier of foam trees on one side to slow the spread

• The foam drones could automate the foam dispensing process but we realized how big the drones would have to be to carry foam based on the Japanese foam drones for an urban environment

After spending several days deliberating about the fire detecting drones, we decided to consider our backup project idea which pertained to a potential alarm clock app

Alarm clock feature brainstorming:

• Make a modular alarm clock system where the user can switch the desired modules in and out.

• Each module will be designed to wake up the user in a different way

• Some module ideas include:

  • Puzzle

    • Different types of puzzles/games

    • puzzle library that can be updated by the community

  • Sound

  • Smell

  • Lights

  • water (spraying)

  • Water sounds

• Can also come with a phone app to control each module

• The app can also have extra features

  • Connect to a coffee maker? Meditation/yoga?

  • it could pick out or give recommendations for your outfit

~Fire Fighting Drones~

~dew Alarm Clock~