If you know every inch of your forest, you know your fire. Changing climate and regulations require extra precautions to document burns and mitigate the risk of escapes. Robotics 88’s autonomous drone produces critical subcanopy pre- and post-burn maps, tracking forest health and documenting fire prep and mop-up.
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Erin Linebarger
Erin Linebarger is CEO and co-founder of Robotics 88. Through prior positions at Neya Systems and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport, and as CEO/co-founder of Ascend Autonomy, she has sharpened her skills in fielded robotics, autonomous unmanned aircraft system (UAS) control, UAS interface design, grant writing, and customer acquisition. She earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Utah and has won the NSF GRFP and the Office of Naval Research enterprise internship and Naval Undersea Research Program Fellowship.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Climate change is reducing the number of acceptable burn days, forcing agencies to consolidate multiple prescribed burns. In 2022, the most damaging wildfire in New Mexico's history ignited from multiple escaped prescribed burns, merging and consuming over 300,000 acres. Following this event, all prescribed burns were shut down nationally for three months. Events like this increase agency liability and heighten citizen concern over fire safety. At the same time, the growing wildfire threat requires 10X current prescribed fire acres. Wildfires cost the United States an estimated $394B in damages annually, and prescribed fire is the only scalable mitigation technique.
Technology Vision
Robotic 88’s tool empowers land managers to mitigate wildfire risk and increase ecosystem health by restoring the natural fire regimes of our forest landscapes through the enhanced application of prescribed fire. The core innovation is an autonomous unmanned aircraft system (UAS) optimized for fire. This UAS combines autonomous decision-making algorithms, mapping, obstacle avoidance, and multi-UAS coordination to provide value at every stage of the burn. Pre-burn maps inform ideal weather conditions and resource requirements, and post-burn maps support complete mop-up (ensuring the fire is out) and long-term forest monitoring. Aerial ignition and situational awareness enable larger and safer prescribed burns.
Potential for Impact
This technology helps roll back the negative impacts of historical land management. The United States outlawed wildland fire, implementing a policy of total fire exclusion, which not only oppressed tribal traditions but resulted in America’s unprecedented annual fire season. Hazardous fuels build up because the landscape's natural fire regimes have been disrupted. Land managers are working to correct this imbalance but need new tools to get ahead of the wildfire season. Wildfires release tons of carbon, kill biodiversity, pollute watersheds, and threaten human life and property. Prescribed fire is beneficial to all of the above.
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