Portable Sensor Technology to Aid First Responders During Wildfire Emergencies

AFWERX has selected Picogrid and MIT’s Mission Innovation X (MIx) for an STTR Phase II contract to enhance military and civil authorities’ response capabilities within the Department of the Air Force (DAF).

Wildfires are a persistent challenge in the United States and the military plays a key role in emergency response. First responders used Picogrid’s Mission Software, Orion, and fused data from various remote sensors in real time via the Legion mission platform.

Picogrid is a defense technology company that builds a unified platform for unmanned systems. The company’s technology helps connect humans, sensors, and autonomous vehicles in a single software environment to achieve mission objectives.

The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process. Their efforts focus on accelerating proposal-to-award timelines, expanding opportunities for small businesses, and reducing bureaucratic overhead through continuous process improvements

Jake Jeffries, Technical Program Manager at Picogrid, said, “Wildfires pose a serious threat to DoD installations, and the military has consistently played a vital role in responding to them across the U.S. Our technology enables Air Force end users, such as fire departments, to deploy compact and portable sensor packages that stream real-time full-motion video back to command centers. This is invaluable for monitoring active wildfires, deterring crime, and supporting emergency response efforts.

“At Vandenberg Space Force Base, for instance, we delivered our Helios hardware in under 24 hours. Helios provided mobile and rapidly deployable capabilities with under 15-minute setup to establish persistent surveillance in vulnerable areas. This adds to our multiple Lander platforms already in use at Vandenberg for long-duration missions to get early situational awareness of local fires.

“Given both Helios and Lander are fully independent of the existing power grid and communication infrastructure, we have ensured operational reliability in austere conditions. What sets us apart is our focus on information interoperability across military, state, municipal, and other fire departments.”

Zane Mountcastle, CEO of Picogrid, also commented, “Picogrid’s platform creates a single pane of glass for emergency operations by consolidating data from dispersed sensors and enabling it to be shared through open APIs. The goal is to make the same information accessible to many stakeholders simultaneously, whether they are in the office or working on mobile devices in the field.”

The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018, which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded. Picogrid will now continue its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities to strengthen national defense capabilities.