PyroGuard
A drone-swarm concept for post-wildfire erosion prevention: survey damaged terrain, prioritise vulnerable soil and target seed-hydromulch delivery.
Project overview
Map the risk.
Target the response.
Proposed architecture · No flight trials
PyroGuard is my research-poster concept for autonomous post-wildfire erosion prevention. It proposes combining fixed-wing survey drones, hexacopter delivery drones and an ATV-mounted ground station into a coordinated mission. This coursework focused on application design and navigation analysis; no working swarm or flight-test results are presented.
The engineering
The challenge
Reduce exposure of ground crews while concentrating post-fire soil treatment on vulnerable terrain. The concept must reconcile large survey areas with precise low-altitude delivery, limited payload, uncertain terrain and communication constraints.
My contribution
I developed the application concept, proposed the system architecture, compared navigation methods and presented feasibility, trade-offs and future work in a research poster.
Approach & implementation
Use fixed-wing scouts for surveying and hexacopters for targeted delivery. The navigation design combines LiDAR-inertial mapping, boustrophedon coverage planning, market-based task allocation and terrain following with local range feedback. Each method is evaluated for its role, computational cost and operating limitations.
Results & lessons
Design outcome
Completed a research-style poster covering the application, architecture, navigation choices, conceptual comparison and feasibility. The deliverable demonstrates engineering analysis and system design rather than implemented autonomy. A 24–48-hour response, 5–8 kg payload, 25–45-minute endurance and 8–15 m operating height are proposed targets in the poster, not validated performance.
Limitations & next steps
Validation would need to establish sensor performance in smoke and ash, payload-dependent endurance, communications resilience, obstacle avoidance and treatment effectiveness. A terrain model can miss new obstacles; a sweep plan alone does not provide real-time collision avoidance. Swarm auctions also require communication and starvation handling. Operational approvals, coordination with firefighting aircraft and ecological suitability need specialist assessment. Future work includes weather-aware scheduling, burn-severity modelling and return surveys to measure vegetation recovery.
Explore the engineering
Build a terrain picture
Fixed-wing scouts would collect LiDAR, multispectral, IMU and GNSS data. The ground station would combine terrain geometry and burn-severity observations.
Engineering trade-off
Mapping adds sensor weight and computation. Feature-poor terrain and smoke or ash conditions need validation.
Terrain model + burn-severity information
Interactive walkthrough of the poster’s proposed architecture. This is an explanation, not a flight simulation or an operational control system.
Media & resources
1 / 1 · PyroGuard poster preview — illustrative reference imagery, not built hardware
Let’s talk about this project.
I’m happy to walk through the design decisions, challenges and what I would improve next.
Contact Peter