GAS on Fire (Guided, Accurate Slurry drops on Fire)

RoGO was born of wildland firefighting. We create technologies providing communications and situational awareness in austere and cellular-denied areas like Wildland Firefighters often work in. RoGO’s DropBlock technology empowers Wildland Firefighters with the ability to communicate, collaborate and be informed of current fire weather behavior, GPS locations of human and non-human firefighting resources and tactical collaborations at the edge. RoGO’s small, satellite-enabled “DropBlock” devices are now deployed with Wildland Firefighters in 7 western U.S. States. RoGO proposes improving our DropBlock communications devices with the ability to provide GPS slurry drop start point, vector positioning and wind drift data to aerial resources from DropBlocks on the ground. This technology serves two critical aerial firefighting purposes: 1) It makes slurry drops more accurate and effective 2) It improves firefighter safety by confirming an “All-Clear” to the slurry bomber, denoting if all firefighters have evacuated the drop zone or not, and if it is safe to drop the slurry. Proposal supports the TX10 subtopic of A2.02: Enabling Aircraft Autonomy. But we find primary fit with TX16 subtopic A3.02 for Aerial Wildfire Response. I believe readers will appreciate that supporting RoGO in our TX16 application supports the TX10 mission symbiotically. Use of funding is validating needs of the ideas/features above with Federal and State Air Attack operators and Wildland Firefighters. Funds will be used to disseminate if the proposed negates the need for a spotter aircraft to fly ahead of a slurry bomber: If true, this can save thousands of dollars per slurry drop. We investigate integrating our DropBlock API with an aircraft’s electronic flight bag (EFB) for ease of pilot use and clarity of data to aircraft in flight. Target markets are public/private sector fixed/rotor wing aerial firefighting organizations, utility and insurance industries.