Drone Hopper
Efficient Night Firefighting Drones

Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was initially used for military applications and later stormed into the entertainment industry as it facilitated aerial footage of sporting and entertainment events. But today, drones have started becoming a popular name in firefighting operations— thanks to its robust ability to reach inaccessible places. Witnessing such an ability, the rescue services are trying to leverage this state-of-the-art vehicle to alleviate the risk for firefighters. However, the majority of the drones present in the market are light-duty UAVs that limits its service to less tedious task like providing the overhead view of the fire scene. Noticing the drawbacks the light-duty UAVs possess, Drone Hopper, a Spanish startup has come up with heavy-duty, semi-autonomous, multi-rotor unmanned drones. These drones are mainly intended to be used in wildfire and urban firefighting and also find its application in agricultural operations.

Talking about the risk the firefighters are facing today, Pablo Flores, CEO and Chairman of Drone Hopper says, “Poised to be the game changer, Drone Hopper is the ally that rescue services have been waiting for.” Living up to his statement, Pablo Flores and his team with great efforts have given rise to an awe-inspiring heavy-duty UAV, named Wild Hopper—leaving drone technologists bug-eyed. Premeditated to suppress forest fire, Wild Hopper is capable of transporting 600 liters of water or flame retardant while covering an area of 1000 square meters. Another entity of the Drone Hopper family, Urban Hopper, intended to extinguish the urban fire, possesses the ability to transport 150 liters of water or flame retardant and covers an area of 300 square meters.

With a robust design, Drone Hopper’s vehicles are resistant to strong winds and use its own patented nebulized water mist jet creation technology to put off the fire.

This technology enables the drones to direct a flow of nebulized water mist and high-speed air directly to the focus of fire, which results in better fire extinctions. Drone Hopper’s heavy-duty multi-rotor drones are also used to create firewalls and line of defense to protect people and infrastructures. Moreover, the compactness of the drones to reach areas where seaplanes and helicopters cannot arrive and its ability to combat fire during the night, facilitating 24/7 operation in suppressing the wild and urban fire. Alongside, these drones use thermal cameras and navigation systems for night operations, which send real-time data from the fire location, reporting second to second critical aspects such as terrain characteristics, atmospheric conditions, and intensity of the fire. These data allow other aerial means in the same operation to extinguish the fire more efficiently and quickly. Also, the possibility to operate several drones in collaborative mode (swarm operation) allows brisk and powerful protection of wildfires with lower acquisition and ownership costs.

In the process of developing their vehicles, the company realized that its technology could also be used in agricultural operations. Therefore, the Pablo Flores-led company has developed a drone named Agro Hopper, which allows the control of pests in crops. It uses the same nebulized water mist jet creation technology to achieve efficient precision farming and fumigation control. Agro Hopper uses programmed routes with waypoints and sprays pesticides at low altitudes so that only a specific area is being fumigated and the other adjacent areas are not contaminated. Funded by the European Union and the Spanish Ministry of Industry, this Spanish startup is continuing to innovate its UAVs and is envisioned to revolutionize rescue and agricultural operations.