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German IoT startup Dryad Networks has secured seed funding of €1.8m ($A29.5m) to develop a large-scale IoT network for bushfire detection within 60 minutes.
The four investors participating in the seed round are: STIHL Digital, the investor arm of the STIHL chainsaw multinational; German energy firm LEAG; impact investor ISAR AG; and the VC firm Brandenburg Kapital.
The system uses a network of solar-powered sensors that use artificial intelligence, measure temperature and humidity and detect the gasses emitted by burning vegetation and that communicate using Dryad’s proprietary variant of LoRaWAN. Cloud based software supports a dashboard enabling authorities to monitor the network.
The company claims to have successfully tested a minimum viable product in a forest in Germany in May 2020 — it has posted a video of the trial on YouTube— and says it has since secured ten letters of intent from forest owners in Germany and Africa.
Dryad says its wireless gateways interconnect in a multi-hop mesh network making it possible to cover very large forests, rather than the real-world 12km range supported by other LoRaWAN gateways. Dryad border gateways at the edge of the network connect to LTE/NB-IoT, satellite or wired internet to access the Dryad cloud platform.
Beyond fire detection, Dyad envisages the technology being used to support sustainable forest management by providing forest owners with insights into the health, microclimate and growth of their forests.
Dryad — in Greek mythology a tree spirits that lives in symbiotic relationship with its host — is led by co-founder, CEO and serial telco entrepreneur Carsten Brinkschulte. He founded mobile core network software startup Core Network Dynamics and sold it to Twilio in 2018. Previously. He also led the turnaround of virtual SIM vendor Movirtu which was sold to BlackBerry in 2014, and he founded AIM-listed mobile messaging pioneer Synchronica in 2004.
Optus & ANU on a parallel track
ON 1 October Optus and the Australian National University (ANU) announcedformation of the ANU-Optus Bushfire Research Centre of Excellence to “undertake advanced research and develop hi-tech solutions to predict, identify and extinguish blazes before they become deadly.”
The program will run until 2024. In the short-term, experts from Optus and ANU will work together to develop “an autonomous ground-based and aerial fire detection system.”
The early stages of the program will see a pilot of infrared sensor cameras launched in the ACT.
The program will investigate how to use existing and new technologies including infra-red cameras, drones, robotics and satellites. It will also harness expertise and research in space, communications, computer vision, sensing systems, defence, data analytics and bushfire science.
By 2022, the program proposes launching a constellation of satellites, managed by ANU, to complement the fire detection system. The program would look to be augmented by a geostationary satellite to help spot and track fires as well as deploy extinguishing technologies.
Bushfires are expected to cost Australia at least $30b over the next three decades. Recent modelling from ANU shows investment in early bushfire detection could save Australia $8.2b over the next 30 years.
