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Sponsored by: University of Connecticut
Updated: September 1, 2019 Doing Business in Connecticut 2019

UConn-Sikorsky Team Engineers Autonomous Firefighting Drone

From left, Kerry Jones ‘19 (ENG), Ryan Heilemann ‘19 (ENG), and Josh Steil ‘19 (ENG) look on as their drone takes off for a test flight on Horsebarn Hill in Storrs.
| Peter Morenus/UConn Photo | The Innovation Partnership Building at UConn Tech Park.

Working with mentors from Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky, three UConn engineering students are bridging the gap between their education in the classroom, and the translation of that knowledge to the world around them. 

Senior electrical engineering majors Kerry Jones, Joshua Steil and computer engineering major Ryan Heilemann, are working on an autonomous firefighting drone, which, in the end, will be able to fight fires all on its own, without a pilot guiding it from a distance.

Once finished, the drone will carry a thermal imaging camera to identify the fire, object avoidance technology to steer clear of any obstacles, and a canister containing a softball-sized fire extinguishing ball that will be dropped over the flames. The system’s technology will be tied together through coding language developed by the students, and will fly, based on coordinates inputted by the group. 

“In the world today there’s a high prevalence of forest fires, like in California, but the problem is how to safely put out these fires,” says Steil. “So our project, in essence, is to see if we can start putting out fires without a human driver.”

While their drone will only be able to put out a campfire-sized blaze, this project is meant to show the proof-of-concept for much bigger technology down the road, says Heilemann.

“The idea is that in the future, on a larger scale, there can be a fleet of unmanned helicopters that can put out the forest fires, therefore, lowering the loss of life consumed by putting out the fires,” says Steil. 

Working with Sikorsky has also pushed the team into similar career paths. Jones accepted an offer with Sikorsky after graduation in their autonomy lab as part of their Rotary and Mission Systems department. 

“Working with Sikorsky definitely sparked a greater interest looking into the company as a whole,” says Steil, who has accepted a job offer with Sikorsky’s parent company, Lockheed Martin in Massachusetts, after graduation.