COLOSSUS X-Challenge Student Competition- Exploring Solutions to Wildfire Fighting Using System of Systems Analysis

Kurzfassung

Throughout history, wildfires have been a prominent natural disaster that causes pollution, environmental damage and loss of lives. Local firefighting agencies and disaster response initiatives have typically managed to contain fires and limit damage to controllable levels. However, in the recent times, due to climate change and human population growth, wildfire occurrences are becoming less predictable and result in greater cost and damage. Solutions employing new technologies and a more operations-oriented analysis, through system-of-systems (SoS), could be a promising way to combat further wildfire devastation. Designing new aircraft and strategies that can be used in human transport and firefighting is one of the goals of the COLOSSUS project. To enable an international innovation, especially amongst the young researchers, a student competition called the X-Challenge was released. This paper will deal with the overview of the challenge, breaking down its objectives, constraints, research contributions and outcomes. Following the this paper, 4 different student teams will present their solutions, including innovative aircraft designs and SoS analysis methods. The knowledge gained, successes and failures from the challenge, alongside outlook and recommendations for future challenges and SoS exploration will be discussed in this paper.