Wireless Fire Detector

Effective fire suppression is a key contributor to aircraft survivability in a war zone. Many aircraft lack effective fire suppression in the wings and avionics bays because of cost and weight. Williams-Pyro will combine its expertise in fire detection, wireless technology, and low-power systems to solve all of the fire suppression issues in aircraft. These advances will make fire suppression feasible even for small aircraft such as UAVs. We will use commercial-off-the-shelf wireless transceiver modules compatible with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard to demonstrate the wireless feature of our fire detectors. 802.15.4 is well-suited for our solution as it provides features such as low transmit power (<1mW), which prevents interference with aircraft’s systems; Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) encoding improves jam resistance; and provides worldwide unlicensed radio-frequency operation. In order to achieve the required 1ms transmit/receive latency, we will created modifications to extisting networking protocols. SimpliciTI, an open-source protocol, has been shown to allow a best-case latency of 2.74ms. Short latencies are a critical need in airborne fire detection and suppression, so a best-case latency of 1ms is required. To meet the latency requirement, Williams-Pyro will add a proprietary time synchronization timeslot assignment method to SimpliciTI to improve latency to 1ms. BENEFIT: Williams-Pyro believes our wireless fire sensor, when implemented by the Air Force on fixed wing aircraft, will offer lightweight, energy efficient (energy harvesting), high-speed wireless fire detection leading to rapid deployment of the fire suppression systems critical to survivability of the aircraft and her crew. Current systems operate at a speed that is an order of magnitude slower than our solution. Due to their weight, particularly related to the wiring, current systems are often not implemented in aircraft, despite their proven survivability benefit. Williams-Pyro is well-positioned for the development of our system, given our 30+ years of experience developing fire suppression products. Demand for applications such as our system extends beyond fixed wing aircraft and naval vessels. Market segments where wireless fire sensing systems are needed include military agencies (fire suppression in aircraft, naval vessels, land vehicles, test facilities, and ground installations), commercial aircraft (wing and compartment automatic fire detection and suppression. The commercial aircraft market may have increased interest in this technology given the risk of terrorism or missile attacks on its aircraft), and residential and assisted living (automatic fire detection and suppression of high risk areas, specifically the kitchen).