Seneca Turns to Lidar for Its Autonomous Wildfire Drones

[Brett Ruether]

Seneca integrates the Ouster Rev8 OS1 Max native color lidar into its firefighting drones for obstacle avoidance, terrain following, and fuels mapping. Wildfire environments present a difficult operating case for autonomous aircraft. Smoke, dust, steep and rapidly changing terrain, and limited visibility all complicate safe flight, particularly during initial attack, when response time is critical. […]