Long Range Fire Detection System
Prototype Fire Detection System
L SA has designed a long-range fire-detection system that is capable of detecting small fires at a range of 1000 meters with a low false alarm rate. We built an engineering model to demonstrate the advanced features of the detector, telescope, and merit function. We tested the device, shown in the photograph, by detecting a small Sterno fire at a range of 50 meters. This is considerably better performance than current infrared fire-detection sensors that have a maximum detection range of 33 meters for a large gasoline fire. We also tested the unit in the presence of false sources such as people, solar glint, and hot objects and verified that the system did not produce false alarms. Customizing the design will extend the detection range to 1000 meters. This type of fire detector would be useful in a wide variety of indoor and outdoor applications:
- Munitions storage areas, where the potential for loss of life or valuable equipment is high.
- Aircraft storage hangers, where a standard fire detectors would not have sufficient detection range.
- Autonomous forest-fire detection from ranger stations
- Oil refineries and gas processing plants
- Rocket and missile launch and test facilities
Our approach emphasizes a small, lightweight low-cost, and rugged fire-detection system that is fieldable in an outdoor environment. Our analysis shows that our fire-detection concept can detect small, low-temperature fires up to a range of 1000 meters. The graph show below shows the response of the merit function to a variety of different fires that are 1000 meters from the fire detector and backgrounds that fill the field of view of the system. There is a high probability of fire detection when the merit function is above a threshold of 3.0. This is a substantial increase in detection range over commercial infrared detection systems.
Fire detector performance graph
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