A flying robot drops a trail of balls filled with a liquid

that starts on fire.

It looks like a game, but it has a serious purpose.

The problem that we're trying to address with this is

how do you start controlled fires for land management

in safe and effective ways.

Prescribed burning is a conservation tool that keeps the great plains healthy,

protecting it from species that invade and choke off the land for other uses.

In the absence of fire, what we've see are a lot of invasions

of Eastern red cedar and as result we see major changes

with livestock production potential in these landscapes,

grassland birds and we've recently seen in the southern great plains

some endangered species that are listed.

Currently controlled fires are started by hand or using

helicopters that drop the delayed ignition balls,

methods that can be dangerous and costly.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln scientists are collaborating on a solution.

We realized that there was this great opportunity to work

together and by tailoring some of these technologies to

this particular problem domain.

In this case it turned out that this aerial robot is a really good platform

for this type of problem.

While the robot is in flight, the cargo feeds balls into

a chute. Each ball is rotated and injected with alcohol

to start a chemical reaction before being dropped to the ground.

Seconds later, the ball ignites.

The balls can be dropped in a straight line, or a precise pattern.

The robot was developed with experience learned in the

Nebraska Intelligent Mobile Unmanned Systems Lab.

Other robotics software projects provided a solid foundation.

We have been working with these types of vehicles, these aerial robots for a while

so we've been able to leverage a lot our existing systems.

Nebraska's expertise in this area also benefits students.

It's fun to actually see a design go from concept to the computer to

then actually being built in real life and now doing physical test

and seeing it validated, that's a lot of fun.

I think it went very well and I'm very excited for our next revision.

Because I think we learned a lot today.

In the future, aerial robots could help local and national agencies protect forests and rangeland.

The devices could also provide a cost effective option

for an individual property owner.

Because it's downscaled, there's going to be more opportunities

to link that to what landowners are doing on their own individual properties.

Whereas they would have no potential to do say helicopter based ignitions.

Looks like if we were out doing a prescribed fire right now,

it would have been a successful ignition.

More revisions are needed, but Nebraska researchers hope the innovation will catch fire as

an alternative for range management.

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