Wildfire reconnaissance and mitigation efforts are a primary concern for the United States Department of the Interior and National Forest Service. The critical consequences of climate change are becoming more prevalent with longer fire seasons throughout the Western United States. The fire seasons are characterized by hotter and drier conditions, allowing for a wildfire to easily start and rapidly spread with the potential to burn millions of acres and cause billions of dollars in property loss. The National Forest Service (NFS) predicts that it will spend over half of its budget in the fight against wildfires within the next decade. Wildfires can have devastating impacts on communities, ecosystems and wildlife, but also pose a dangerous threat to the fire fighters responsible for their mitigation and containment. A Mother Rover-Child Drone Firetracker System will assist firefighters by traveling to locations at risk of wildfire and gather environmental data which it then transmits back to the designated ground station. This provides information on a fire's intensity, severity, and extent while firefighters remain a safe distance away from the threat. Team DRIFT is a group of eleven undergraduate Aerospace Engineering Sciences students at the University of Colorado Boulder currently developing the Mother-Rover for the Firetracker System with the purpose to secure and carry the Child Drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) to a desired location of interest. The development of this Mother-Rover involves integrating the hardware and software of the already completed Child Drone and Landing Platform. The Mother Rover, approximately 46.3 by 58.9 inches, weighing 450 lbs and driven by a remote operator, is capable of traversing rough terrain, defined by small gravel, fine dirt, and slopes up to 20 degrees. Due to the image recognition system utilized on the landing platform for the autonomous landing of the Child Drone, the landing platform must be level to within 3.5 degrees in order for the child drone to safely take off and land. Therefore, the Mother Rover utilizes an internal leveling jack system to level in the landing platform to within 3.5 degrees if the child drone is to be deployed on a slope. The considerable weight of the Mother Rover presents a unique engineering challenge as it must be capable of traversing over the defined rough terrain while also maintaining the security of the onboard Child Drone. The design solution for this Mother Rover and associated leveling system will be discussed in this paper.
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机译：野火侦查和缓解工作是美国内政部和国家森林服务部的主要关注事项。随着整个美国西部火灾季节的延长，气候变化的严重后果变得越来越普遍。火灾季节的特点是炎热干燥，容易引起野火并迅速蔓延，可能烧毁数百万英亩土地并造成数十亿美元的财产损失。国家森林服务局（NFS）预测，在未来十年内，它将在预算上花费超过一半的资金用于扑灭野火。野火可能对社区，生态系统和野生生物造成毁灭性影响，但也对负责缓解和围堵其事的消防员构成危险威胁。漫游者母婴无人机火力追踪系统将协助消防员前往有野火危险的地点，并收集环境数据，然后将其传输回指定的地面站。这样可以提供有关火灾强度，严重性和程度的信息，而消防员仍要远离威胁。 DRIFT小组由来自科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的11名航空航天工程学专业的学生组成，目前正在为Firetracker系统开发母漫游车，其目的是将儿童无人机（无人驾驶飞机）固定并携带到所需的目标位置。这款“ Mother-Rover”的开发涉及集成已经完成的儿童无人机和着陆平台的硬件和软件。越野车长约46.3 x 58.9英寸，重450磅，由远程操作员驱动，能够穿越崎small的地形，该地形由小砾石，细土和高达20度的坡度定义。由于在降落平台上使用了图像识别系统来实现儿童无人机的自动降落，因此降落平台必须保持在3.5度以内的水平度，以使儿童无人机能够安全起飞和降落。因此，如果要将儿童无人机部署在斜坡上，则母亲漫游车利用内部调平千斤顶系统将着陆平台调平至3.5度以内。 Mother Rover相当重的重量提出了独特的工程挑战，因为它必须能够穿越定义的崎terrain地形，同时还要保持机载儿童无人机的安全性。本文将讨论该“母亲漫游者”和相关水准测量系统的设计解决方案。
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