Tucked away in the German countryside, a futuristic green orb—resembling a giant, solar-panel-covered golf ball—is housing what may become a game-changing solution to one of the world’s most destructive consequences of climate change: wildfires. Developed by German tech company Dryad, the installation serves as a hangar for an AI-powered drone designed to detect and extinguish wildfires within minutes.
With rising global temperatures, wildfires are becoming more frequent, aggressive, and harder to control. “Fires are spreading much faster and more aggressively than in the past. That also means we have to react more quickly,” explained Dryad CEO Carsten Brinkschulte during a demonstration near Berlin. Once rare in Germany, wildfires are now a growing threat—even in urban-adjacent areas like the forests around Berlin, where severe blazes erupted during the 2022 heatwave.
Wildfire experts say that conditions fueling these events—heat, drought, and wind—are more common due to climate change. Lindon Pronto, a senior wildfire management expert at the European Forest Institute, emphasized the urgency: wildfires are reaching a point where they’re “basically unstoppable.” That’s why innovation is crucial—not only for responding to active fires but for detecting and managing them before they spiral out of control.
Dryad’s system is among 30 global contenders vying for a multi-million-dollar prize awarded for creating autonomous technology capable of extinguishing wildfires in under 10 minutes. Their recent demonstration marked what they say is the world’s first computer-guided wildfire detection drone in action.
The system begins with a network of forest sensors that detect chemical signatures from smoke. Once a threat is confirmed, a signal triggers the AI drone to launch from within the orb. It lifts off, zigzagging above the forest to zero in on the fire’s exact location and gauge its severity. This real-time data can then be relayed to firefighters, enabling a faster and more precise response.
But Dryad’s ambitions go beyond detection. The company hopes that future iterations of the drone will descend beneath the forest canopy and use a novel “sonic cannon” to extinguish small fires with low-frequency sound waves. If successful, this method would eliminate the need to carry heavy water payloads, making the drones lighter, faster, and more efficient. Brinkschulte noted that this acoustic approach could be a breakthrough, “saving the drone from carrying large amounts of heavy water.”
The technology, if scaled, could be especially valuable in “wildland-urban interface” areas—where human settlements meet natural landscapes. These zones are the most at risk for man-made wildfires and carry the highest threat to human life and property. In regions like California, where wildfires have recently claimed dozens of lives and caused billions in damages, autonomous systems like Dryad’s could be transformative.
Dryad plans to launch its drones commercially by 2026, with initial deployments likely outside of Europe due to regulatory constraints. Brinkschulte hopes that with evolving policy and growing urgency, European markets won’t be far behind.
“This kind of technology could put out fires without putting people’s lives in danger,” said Pronto. And if it lives up to its promise, Dryad’s green orb could become a symbol of how innovation and artificial intelligence can work in harmony with nature—to protect it.
By Impact Lab
