What if several groups of innovators tackled a growing problem and could stop a wildfire with answers straight out of science fiction? That’s what the XPrize Wildfire competition asked for and almost received. “Almost” because none of the finalists managed to take home the Grand Prize in either track (see below). Writing for Ars Technica, Jeremy Hsu, under the headline, “XPRIZE Wildfire winners spotted fires within 10 min—but couldn’t stop them.” A subheading added, “$11M competition showed wildfire detection is still easier than stopping fires. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTlgRugUNCo The XPrize Foundation broke the problem into two tracks. Track A: Space-based Wildfire Detection and Intelligence, awarded prizes for the most promising and “meaningful advances in space-based wildfire detection and intelligence.” Track B:Autonomous Wildfire Response, awarded three teams for their ability to, “to autonomously detect and completely suppress a high-risk fire within 10 minutes of ignition across 1,000 km² of challenging terrain, without disturbing nearby decoy fires.” Track A Winners First Place – System Integration …
