Inspire is a start-up founded in 2017 in Genoa that is developing an integrated system capable of responding to issues related to extinguishing forest fires.
In particular, scenarios where re-ignition of fires from hot spots considered already extinguished occur, especially during the night when activities are reduced. The monitoring of these scattered outbreaks requires human-supported technologies to ensure night-time operability and proper recognition of hotspots and predictive calculation of fire recovery.
The system developed by the start-up, which, after concentrating on research and development, is now ready to work on the first prototypes, includes the use of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones), together with an automated drone management platform that can recharge and dispatch multiple units over an area. The purpose of the platform, called M.A.R.S (multiple airdrone response system), is to acquire data (images, data from sensors, etc.) and process them using previously trained artificial intelligence tools, and provide a predictive analysis of which hotspots are most at risk of fire outbreaks, predicting their subsequent evolution and testing various fire attack strategies in real time.
Inspire is a university spin-off from the University of Genoa and was created by entrepreneurs and university professors with experience in the robotics, electronics and ICT sector. The start-up operates in the field of design, production and marketing of autonomous robotic systems for logistical and operational support of UAVs, a field in which it holds five national and international industrial patents.
Alberto Clavarino, responsible at Inspire for the commercial side and relations with strategic partners says in a note: ‘Inspire has a clear and precise vision of the technical and commercial objectives it wants to pursue, having identified a specific need in its target market. This is to compensate for the limited operating autonomy, a few tens of minutes, of the current battery-powered systems with which drones fly. In fact, we have patented the M.A.R.S. platform, designed with the objective of overcoming these limitations and providing automated servicing to fleets of drones on specific missions. The M.A.R.S. platform differs from all other solutions on the market in that it provides for the immediate replacement of the battery pack in a matter of seconds compared to inductive charging systems, where the drone must remain stationary for several tens of minutes on the charging platform. It also integrates the substitution of multiple payload types to perform multiple missions and tasks during the course of the planned mission’.
A distinctive and peculiar element benefiting Inspire’s entrepreneurial project is the technical-scientific quality and originality of the project, where academic research topics, often the subject of technology transfer to Inspire, are capitalised upon in a virtuous manner, leading to various scientific publications in leading international journals.
Some of the universities, research centres and technological poles with which it has been collaborating for several years include: the Department of Mechanical, Energy, Management and Transport Engineering – DIME of the Polytechnic School of Engineering of the University of Genoa; the Department of Naval, Electrical, Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering (DITEN) of the University of Genoa; DIMEAS – Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Turin; the Departments of Agricultural Science and Technology of the Faculty of Agriculture of Sassari and the National Research Council (CNR). With these institutions, the start-up shares projects on research topics, including: Precision landing, servicing scheduling and battery recharge, which support the technological development of the entrepreneurial project. Inspire became part of the S.O.S.I.A. (Environmental Risk Management and Territorial Control, Cybersecurity of Critical Infrastructures, Innovative ICT Systems for the Intelligent Factory and Automation) Research and Innovation Pole, set up at the instigation of the Liguria Region.
In addition, Inspire has among its partners institutions such as the Italian Army and the National Fire Brigade Corps, and companies such as A.R.I.S. (production of innovative vehicles for civil protection and fire brigades) and Nimbus drones.
To date, Inspire has raised around EUR 2.5 million through calls for tenders with academic, industrial and institutional partners. In particular, Inspire collaborates on the project ‘UAV platform for monitoring forest fire outbreaks and detecting post-fire recovery hotspots’ by Patrizia Bagnerini, associate professor of Numerical Analysis at the University of Genoa (DIME), funded by the MUR with 2,146,000 euro under the FISA, Fondo italiano scienze applicate. In addition, the first design phase was supported by a €325,000 grant from Finpiemonte, the financial company of the Piedmont region to support the regional economic growth and development process.
“As the Polytechnic School of the University of Genoa, we have been collaborating for years on the creation of an innovative system based on the integration of algorithms, simulations, artificial intelligence and the robotic drone management platform,’ says Bagnerini. ‘We thus aim to provide a support system for Civil Protection and the Fire Brigade that can automatically analyse the data collected by the drones, process them through AI, and provide predictions on the development of the fire and the effectiveness of possible strategies.
Paolo Maggiore, professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, adds: ‘We are pleased to offer our support in the adoption of the most appropriate sensor equipment for Inspire’s drones. Our contribution focuses on two aspects: we are testing the most effective sensors for detecting and monitoring fire outbreaks and, in parallel, we are developing an automatic image recognition system that makes it easy to locate new outbreaks and their expansion.
Inspire’s management team, which is an integral part of the company’s workforce, includes: Marco Ghio, managing director and founding partner, as well as the creator of the patents underlying the development of the company’s innovative systems; Daniele Caviglia, founding partner and chief scientist, lecturer at the Polytechnic School of Engineering in Genoa; Paola Castagno, responsible for the definition and development of the system firmware of the various interoperating subsystems; and Alberto Clavarino, responsible for sales and relations with strategic partners. In addition, the company can benefit from the scientific collaboration of Mauro Gaggero, a senior researcher at the CNR.
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