WILDFIRE: Enhanced PIR sensors for remote wildfire detection and prevention

野火在全球范围内造成灾难性的破坏，占全球碳排放量的20%。气候变化加剧了这一问题，使之日益恶化。在美国、澳大利亚、西班牙等地发生的异常严重的火灾已经夺去了数百人的生命，造成了价值数十亿美元的损失。野火正在一些不习惯这个问题的国家爆发。北方欧洲国家在2018年燃烧面积增加了200倍。即使是英国也受到了严重影响（例如Winter Hill- 2018）。我们提出了一种新的解决方案，用于早期检测最可预测的火灾：那些由于电力线故障而发生的火灾-比大多数火灾更具破坏性，因为它们通常发生在大风中。在加州的6年多时间里，一家公用事业公司的电力线走廊发生了1,500起野火，其中一些是有记录以来最具破坏性的。在西班牙，1985年至2010年期间发生了3，185起火灾。全球电力线路运营商现在面临着严重的财务负债（US$Bns），为可靠和有效的检测系统创造了一个巨大的市场（£M100's）。公用事业公司已经评估了传感器（基于可见光/热成像仪），但没有大规模采用任何传感器，因为它们太昂贵而无法推出，需要人工监控，并且只有在火灾发展到不可阻挡的规模时才能检测到火灾。公司需要能够在点火后的第一分钟内检测到火灾的技术，而它们仍然占用不到1英亩的土地，并且消防队员有机会在火灾造成大规模破坏之前扑灭火灾。这是一个挑战。许多野火发生在远离电力和电信基础设施的偏远地区，因此低功耗，可靠性和电力/通信自主性是关键。我们提出的传感系统将使用低成本，世界领先的热释电红外（PIR）探测器（Pyreos），低成本，高效的非成像辐射收集器（Tethir）。PIR广泛用于石油和天然气领域的火灾/火焰探测系统。Tethir的光学系统将提供可用的探测范围（1- 2公里），现有的探测器性能和更好的探测器的发展。该项目将开发一种可销售的市场进入产品，我们预计在原型演示后的前5年内向电力公司销售10万英镑，随着我们将检测能力扩展到其他野火原因（例如纵火），将进一步销售。尖端技术与伦敦帝国和国王学院两位世界领先的PIR和野火专家的结合是这一发展成功的关键，并为英国带来了重大的财富创造机会，同时帮助解决了严重的全球性问题。

Wildfires cause catastrophic damage worldwide, accounting for 20% of global carbon emissions. The problem, exacerbated by climate change, is deteriorating. Unusually severe fires in USA, Australia, Spain etc, have claimed hundreds of lives, causing damage worth US$Bn's. Wildfires are breaking out in countries unaccustomed to the problem. Northern European countries experienced a 200x increase in area burned in 2018\. Even the UK is being badly affected (e.g. Winter Hill -- 2018).We propose a new solution for early detection of the most predictable fires: those occurring due to power line failure - more damaging than most because they often occur in high winds. In California over 6 years, 1,500 wildfires started in the power line corridors of one utility company, some of the most devastating on record. In Spain, 3,185 fires were started by power lines between 1985-2010\. Power line operators worldwide now face severe financial liabilities (US$Bns), creating a large market (£M100's) for reliable and effective detection systems.Utility companies have assessed sensors (based on visible/thermal imagers) but have not adopted any at scale because they are too expensive to rollout, require human monitoring and only detect fires once they have grown to an unstoppable size. Companies need technologies that can detect fires in the first minutes after ignition, while they still occupy <1 acre and when firefighters have a chance of extinguishing the fire before it causes extensive damage. This is challenging. Many wildfires occur in remote areas far from electricity and telecommunications infrastructure, so low power consumption, reliability and power/comms-autonomy are key.The sensing system we propose will use low cost, world-leading pyroelectric infra-red (PIR) detectors (Pyreos) with low cost, highly-efficient non-imaging radiation-collectors (Tethir). PIR's are widely used in fire/flame detection systems for the oil-and-gas sector. Tethir's optics will give a usable detection range (1-2km) with existing detector performances and much further with the development of better detectors. The project will develop a saleable market-entry product and we predict sales of £M10's to power companies over the first 5 years after prototype demonstration, with further sales as we extend the detection capability to other wildfire causes (e.g. arson). The combination of cutting edge technologies with two world-leading UK experts in PIRs and wildfires at Imperial and Kings College London is key to the success of this development and brings the UK a significant wealth-creation opportunity while helping to solve a serious world-wide problem.