Aerial Assistance System for Automated Firefighting during Turntable Ladder Operations

TL;DR

The paper addresses firefighting in structurally complex facilities where visibility and scale hinder accurate fire localization. It introduces an integrated aerial assistance system combining a UAV-based heat-source localization pipeline with a turntable-ladder-mounted automated water monitor, coordinated through a ROS-based ground control station and an operator-friendly handheld interface. Key contributions include a geodata-derived obstacle-free flight funnel, a two-pose triangulation strategy for continuous localization, a GNSS-assisted ballistic nozzle model, and SAM 2.1–assisted water-jet segmentation for precise targeting. Preliminary experiments demonstrate robust heat-source detection, reliable target pose estimation, and effective water-jet alignment, indicating potential for safer and more efficient firefighting in obstructed environments.

Abstract

Fires in industrial facilities pose special challenges to firefighters, e.g., due to the sheer size and scale of the buildings. The resulting visual obstructions impair firefighting accuracy, further compounded by inaccurate assessments of the fire's location. Such imprecision simultaneously increases the overall damage and prolongs the fire-brigades operation unnecessarily. We propose an automated assistance system for firefighting using a motorized fire monitor on a turntable ladder with aerial support from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The UAV flies autonomously within an obstacle-free flight funnel derived from geodata, detecting and localizing heat sources. An operator supervises the operation on a handheld controller and selects a fire target in reach. After the selection, the UAV automatically plans and traverses between two triangulation poses for continued fire localization. Simultaneously, our system steers the fire monitor to ensure the water jet reaches the detected heat source. In preliminary tests, our assistance system successfully localized multiple heat sources and directed a water jet towards the fires.

Figures (11)

• Figure 1: An automated fire monitor sprays water from an aerial turntable ladder onto a simulated heat source as detected by the UAV.
• Figure 2: System components and data flow. UAV sensor data is send over the remote control to the ground control station (GCS) where the data is processed to localize fires. An operator selects on the handheld controller (HHC) the fire target. The GCS sends the fire's georeferenced coordinates wirelessly to the water monitor controller (WMC) to orient the nozzle of a fire monitor on top of the ladder.
• Figure 3: Automated fire monitor on the turntable ladder.
• Figure 4: Water monitor controller communication architecture.
• Figure 5: User-defined obstacle-free flight funnel (gray), for safe autonomous operation within a 3D geodata model (green to purple). Two triangulation poses (arrows) are planned relative to the detected heat source (orange).