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Our Investment in Drone Amplified
Controlled burns with drone technology
A controlled or prescribed burn, also known as hazard reduction burning, is a technique sometimes used in forest management or prairie restoration. While there are many benefits of controlled burns, the current implementation is often dangerous and expensive.
Milestones
Founded in 2015
Partnered in 2017
Founding Team
Carrick Detweiler Sebastian Elbaum
Jim Higgins
More than $3.7 billion per year is spent in the US on fire management activities.
Drone Amplified was founded in 2015 by two UNL professors, Carrick Detweiler and Sebastian Elbaum. The company aimed to pioneer a cheaper, safer, and more accessible fire monitoring and ignition solution than is available today in the area of controlled burning.
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Drone Amplified’s technology was developed as a result of more than $4M of research grants and the expertise of the NIMBUS Lab at The University of Nebraska.
Invest Nebraska first partnered with the company in the summer of 2017. The team has just begun field trials and was looking to expedite product development and sales channels. ​
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The Drone Amplified 'Ignis' System navigates to the location desired and drops plastic spheres which burst into flame about a minute after landing on the ground. The spheres are similar to the ones dropped by helicopters for aerial ignition on large wildfires and prescribed fires.
Today, Drone Amplified has been used extensively in the past fire seasons. It was then approved for use for fuels and wildfire management by the National Interagency Aviation Committee in 2019 and has been actively used by federal, state, and private contractors on numerous fires and prescribed burns ever since.
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