Autonomous aircraft for wildfire response

Rain adapts autonomous aircraft with wildfire intelligence to rapidly perceive, understand and manage wildfire ignitions.

This simulation combines fire propagation and fire suppression modeling to determine how many aircraft are required to contain or slow an ignition before it reaches its inflection point.

The number of prepositioned aircraft (black dots) underscores a vitally important point: the long term role of autonomy is scaling wildfire response capacity, not replacing jobs. 

Rain’s wildfire mission autonomy software gives fire professionals the ability to assign high-level wildfire mission objectives to autonomous aircraft and exercise supervisory control of the aircraft as it carries out assigned objectives.

Rain integrates with aircraft autonomy systems such as Sikorsky’s MATRIX™.

Wildfire mission autonomy

  • Action early detection

    Remotely dispatch prepositioned aircraft to a detected ignition for size up and rapid initial attack.

  • Incorporate automation for repetitive tasks

    Automate spot fire or hotspot patrols within a supervisor-defined region, or perform perimeter suppression.

  • Develop suppression plans

    Extinguish spot fires or hotspots within a supervisor-defined region. Establish or extend control lines. Automatically calculate the amount of fire suppressant to drop on the fire based on fire spread and intensity.

  • Optional uncrewed modes

    Human interface allows operators to provide high-level intent for suppression activity. Air and ground crews are able to understand each other's intent. Pilots receive suggestions on where to fly drop patterns, or the system will route the aircraft to the drop pattern for the pilot.

  • Enhance safety

    Detect and avoid terrain, incident assigned aircraft, and other obstacles such as wires, towers, and trees. Incorporate path planning …

  • Manage fire intensity

    Provide incident commanders with more options when engaging with natural fire starts. Monitor some lower intensity regions of fire or actively cool to remain within threshold.

What fire agency leaders are saying

“Rain’s autonomous wildfire suppression technology will give every community the opportunity to stop wildfires before they grow out of control.”
— Chief Brian Fennessy, Orange County Fire Authority, FIRESCOPE Chair
“We need much more low intensity, healthy fire and less high intensity, damaging fire. Rain succeeds for both of these goals by making it easier to control damaging fires in new ways, and by helping us advance low intensity fire when and where we need it.”
— Kate Dargan Marquis, former State Fire Marshal
“Rain is creating a more efficient wildfire response framework that ultimately saves lives, property and our natural ecosystems.”
— Christopher Anthony, Former CAL FIRE Chief Deputy Director
“Of all the tools we have to keep wildfires small, none are more effective than rapid suppression on initial attack of a wildfire. Autonomous aircraft—both crewed and uncrewed—can increase flexibility and capacity for on-the-ground incident commanders, ultimately saving lives and property for the communities we serve.”
— Chief Dan Munsey, Chairperson, International Association of Fire Chiefs Technology Council

Built with Fire Professionals

Our team has worked alongside fire professionals since day one to build a system that works every time. We have personal experience with catastrophic wildfire, and we are solving our own problem.

Updates

  • Rain and Sikorsky show autonomous wildfire suppression over live fire in California

    Rain and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, have demonstrated autonomous wildfire suppression technology in a representative wildfire environment for the first time in California. Over the course of two weeks the companies completed several firsts including: First demonstrated communication interoperability of an autonomous aircraft with a human-piloted helicopter in the same Fire Traffic Area, supervised by an Orange County Fire Authority air tactical group supervisor aircraft (HLCO).

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  • Rain and Sikorsky Demonstrate Autonomy to Rapidly Find and Suppress Test Fires

    Government, firefighting agencies, and investment representatives convened with Rain and Sikorsky to observe autonomous aerial water drops. 

    Rain and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, successfully demonstrated how an autonomous Black Hawk® helicopter can be commanded to take off, identify the location and size of a small fire, and then accurately drop water to suppress the flames. 

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  • A Black Hawk helicopter drops water from a Bambi Bucket

    Accounting for Wind

    Rain validated a wind deviation model with Sikorsky’s optionally-piloted Black Hawk helicopter. Wind deviation is one part of our broader wildfire mission autonomy system to equip fire agencies with tools to stop wildfires before they grow out of control.

    On the flight field behind Sikorsky headquarters, an optionally-piloted Black Hawk helicopter equipped with Rain’s software targets a test fire in a moderate breeze while our team watches from as far away as California. We were there with Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, to validate our latest wind deviation model on their optionally-piloted UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

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  • 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 just announced a series of first-of-their-kind capabilities that can enable accelerated aerial response to wildfires. 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.  

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  • The trifecta of innovation, policy & capital

    Natural climate solutions to climate problems—a discussion with climate investor, Nancy Pfund, a champion of California's landmark clean energy agenda, Gayle Miller, and Rain's CEO, Maxwell Brodie.

    Wildfire is increasingly recognized as a key driver—and result—of climate change, and it’s familiar to hear conversations about rapid wildfire response, fire intensity management and wildfire preparedness. An often-overlooked but essential part of solving for the changing frequency and intensity of wildfires is recognizing and promoting the role of climate policy in shaping how we move forward in the wildland-urban interface and our public lands.

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  • Rain and Sikorsky Collaborate to Advance Rapid Response Capabilities for Aerial Wildland Firefighting

    We’re excited to announce our collaboration with Sikorsky today at the UP.Summit.

    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.

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