RAPID RESPONSE: THE POWER OF AUTONOMOUS WILDFIRE RESPONSE
Meet the 15 teams shaping the future of firefighting.
XPRIZE Wildfire is proud to announce the 15 Semifinalist Teams advancing to the next stage of the $5M Autonomous Wildfire Response Track. These breakthrough innovators are developing fully autonomous systems that can detect and suppress high-risk wildfires within minutes of ignition—before they escalate into destructive events.
As Semifinalist Teams for this track prepare for field testing starting this summer, we’re spotlighting why their work matters, how this prize works, and what’s at stake.
WHY WE NEED A NEW APPROACH
While fire is an essential part of many ecosystems—clearing dead vegetation and supporting regeneration—destructive wildfires are an escalating global threat, destroying millions of acres annually, displacing communities, and significantly contributing to climate change.
Firefighters are on the front lines of an increasingly complex challenge. New autonomous technologies can serve as critical partners, responding faster, operating in dangerous terrain, and helping stop fires when they are still small, before they grow out of control.
The XPRIZE Wildfire Autonomous Wildfire Response Track challenges teams to develop cutting-edge, integrated autonomous technologies to swiftly detect and suppress wildfires before they grow out of control.
The Autonomous Wildfire Response Track will ultimately work in tandem with XPRIZE Wildfire’s Space-Based Detection & Intelligence Track. While the Space-Based Detection & Intelligence Track focuses on detecting wildfires from space, offering rapid, large-scale surveillance through satellite-based systems, the Autonomous Wildfire Response Track provides the critical next step, rapid, localized detection and suppression via integrated systems deployed at ground level. Together, these tracks will provide an integrated approach to managing destructive wildfires, combining far-reaching detection with targeted, rapid on-the-ground response.
THE CHALLENGE
The Autonomous Wildfire Response Track challenges innovators to develop fully autonomous, integrated systems that can:
- Detect, assess, and suppress an incipient-stage, high-risk wildfire
- Operate fully autonomously with no human intervention
- Do so in under 10 minutes, across a 1,000 km² area
- Ignore decoy fires—proving precision, not just speed
Autonomous systems will provide rapid, targeted responses regardless of terrain or time of day. These novel systems aim to transform current response capabilities, unlocking the possibility of preventing wildfires from becoming destructive events. Reaching that goal requires a closer examination of the barriers and opportunities ahead.
THE BARRIERS TO OVERCOME
Autonomous solutions hold the potential to revolutionize how we detect and suppress wildfires. While there have been some recent developments in these technologies, significant challenges remain that need to be addressed to make them valuable components of our modern firefighting arsenal.
- Time: Wildfire detection, response, and suppression can be too slow when it comes to destructive fires.
- Detection Accuracy & Precision: Early detection is a game changer for firefighting, but current capabilities are driving delays in strategy and response.
- Accessibility: Wildfires can start in hard-to-reach areas, and responders are limited by terrain, weather, time of day, and environmental conditions.
- Siloed, Fragmented Field: Firefighting’s core practices are split across many actors and are insufficiently coordinated and integrated.
- Operability in Extreme Weather: Climate change-induced weather leads to more extreme fires that spread faster.
- Global Availability: Even when the technology exists, it can be costly and limited.
MEET THE SEMIFINALISTS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF FIREFIGHTING
XPRIZE Wildfire, alongside our panel of expert judges, is proud to announce the 15 Semifinalist Teams selected for the $5M Autonomous Wildfire Response Track. Teams were evaluated by a panel of judges who reviewed system design, development progress, AI strategies, and long-term scalability.
Now, these teams will advance to the next critical stage of the competition: real-world field testing.
WHAT’S NEXT: REAL-WORLD FIELD TESTING
Over the coming months, the XPRIZE Wildfire operations team will travel to each Autonomous Semifinalist team location for in-field testing. Teams will physically demonstrate their autonomous end-to-end wildfire response system, including smart detection, autonomous navigation and safety, and autonomous suppression, along with an overall technical readiness and scalability assessment of their system.
These live trials will be captured by the testing partner, the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration (ACUASI), and will be used for official judging, offering a unique behind-the-scenes look at wildfire technology in action.
HOW XPRIZE WILDFIRE WILL REVOLUTIONIZE DETECTION & SUPPRESSION
The XPRIZE Wildfire Autonomous Wildfire Response Track represents a transformative shift in the response and management of destructive wildfires. By incentivizing breakthroughs in autonomous, integrated technologies, XPRIZE is paving the way toward faster, safer, and more effective solutions that can meet the scale of today’s destructive wildfire threat.
Over the course of the competition, teams will demonstrate their systems and be evaluated on:
- Speed: Ability to identify and respond to fires within ten minutes.
- Accuracy: The operation must be completely autonomous over a 1,000 km² area, leaving any decoy fires untouched.
- Safety: Systems must operate safely without causing human harm and must not release hazardous suppression materials.
- Durability: Systems should be able to operate in heavy rain, wind, and snow, and navigate complex terrain, including 50-degree average inclines, water, mud, dense vegetation, and forest canopies.
- Connectivity: Maintain connectivity and work with existing firefighting infrastructure.
- Scalability: Systems must be cost-effective, ensuring these innovations are scalable and globally deployable.
These rigorous criteria are designed to identify the most advanced, dependable, and deployable solutions, ones that can protect lives and ecosystems worldwide.
SUPPORT WILDFIRE SOLUTIONS
Join us as we redefine the frontline of wildfire defense. Together, we can harness innovation to safeguard lives, protect the environment, and build resilience against one of our most urgent global challenges. To support and learn more about the Semifinalist Teams and their systems, check out the XPRIZE Wildfire Semifinalist Teams Book.