Windracers Environmental Selected to Advance in the Prestigious XPRIZE Wildfire Competition

London, UK – September 4th, 2024  Windracers, provider of the low-cost self-flying cargo aircraft ULTRA™, today announced that Team Windracers Environmental has been selected as a Qualified Team in XPRIZE Wildfire Track B: Autonomous Wildfire Response. Team Windracers is one of 29 teams selected to advance and compete in the Track B Technical Verification Round.

Windracers Environmental has designed the operation of a coordinated group – or swarm – of ULTRAs capable of continuous operation over large areas. The ULTRA swarm autonomously deploys over an area to search, detect fires using onboard AI-based image processing and then coordinate to deliver their extinguishing payload directly onto a fire. A human-centric interface is included to monitor the swarm and, if needed, enable firefighting experts in the team to intervene to optimise firefighting measures.

Windracers Environmental is a collaboration of experts from Windracers, University of Bristol (swarm technology), University of Sheffield (AI-enabled imaging) and Lancashire Fire & Rescue (wildfire firefighting expertise). The team grew out of a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded project of the Future Flight Challenge.

“This competition perfectly aligns with the work we’ve been doing as a team for the past 4 years developing swarms to detect and mitigate wildfires over huge areas.” added Sabine Hauert, Professor of Swarm Engineering at the University of Bristol.

“Windracers is proud to advance to the next stage of XPRIZE Wildfire, yet another proof point of the utility and effectiveness of ULTRA,” said Simon Muderack, CEO of Windracers. “It’s estimated that wildfires in the United States alone cost nearly 1 trillion dollars a year and Windracers hopes to reduce these losses using ULTRA, AI and swarm technology as means of early wildfire detection and suppression in many countries.”