{"id":76842,"date":"2026-02-09T10:10:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=76842"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:44:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:44:40","slug":"glasswing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/glasswing\/","title":{"rendered":"How a new drone system can help fight forest fires and rescue POWs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new project at Northern Arizona University aims to provide a flexible set of eyes in dense forest canopy, offering value both to U.S. defense systems and\u00a0wildfire\u00a0management\u00a0in northern Arizona.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Glasswing\u00a0is an autonomous unoccupied\u00a0aircraft\u00a0system (UAS) that can fly beneath forest canopies, where dense vegetation, unreliable GPS and complex obstacles\u00a0render\u00a0conventional drones useless. It builds on work led by\u00a0<\/span>Alexander\u00a0Shenkin<\/span><\/b>,\u00a0an assistant research\u00a0professor in the\u00a0School\u00a0of\u00a0Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems and director of the\u00a0<\/span>ECOSAIL Lab<\/span><\/a>, and lab co-director\u00a0<\/span>Amy\u00a0Wolkowinsky<\/span><\/b>, a geologist in the School of Earth and Sustainability.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00a0also is\u00a0one of eight projects funded by a new\u00a0partnership between the Arizona Board of Regents and the Arizona Office of Defense Innovation. Researchers from all three Arizona universities will develop\u00a0dual-use\u00a0technology\u00a0with the Southwest Mission Acceleration Center (SWMAC) to align university research with defense needs.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe grant supports a six-month sprint to build out our simulation environment and hardware-in-the-loop testing,\u201d\u00a0Shenkin\u00a0said. \u201cBy the end of that period, we\u2019ll have a fully functional simulation pipeline where we can test navigation algorithms against realistic forest environments before ever flying hardware.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The need for\u00a0Glasswing\u00a0in Arizona\u00a0and beyond<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Areas with thick vegetation have always been hard to explore\u2014by foot or\u00a0with\u00a0technology. That introduces complications when\u00a0planning for\u00a0and responding to fires; without knowing what\u2019s there, managers are making critical decisions without all the relevant information.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur ponderosa pine forests face wildfire risk, post-fire recovery challenges and climate-driven stress,\u201d he said. \u201cGlasswing\u00a0enables fine-scale mapping of understory fuels at large scales, better carbon storage estimates for climate and market applications and safer timber planning by identifying hazards before crews enter.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The benefits stretch far beyond our forests, though. Regions throughout the world are invisible to satellites right now; the canopy covers block\u00a0the view of what\u2019s underneath. Just like in fighting fires, not knowing\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0there\u00a0is a problem.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a significant intelligence gap,\u201d\u00a0Shenkin\u00a0said. \u201cIf you need to plan a mission in that terrain, you\u2019re either sending people in blind or doing without ground-level information entirely.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Glasswing\u00a0provides\u00a0autonomous reconnaissance\u00a0beneath the canopy, so U.S. forces can map the environment,\u00a0identify\u00a0ways in and out and get a better sense of the actual situation on the ground. This is useful for missions like\u00a0locating\u00a0downed\u00a0pilots or lost crew in jungle terrain without putting\u00a0additional\u00a0people at risk.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The NAU team is working with Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape specialists, Shenkin said. The same autonomy that maps carbon in a forest can scout terrain or find someone who needs extraction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read about a project aimed to overcoming signal jamming that received ABOR funding for commercialization.\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Visualization<\/p>\n

What\u2019s\u00a0next<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

The team\u2019s stretch goal is an early version of the system that navigates autonomously in controlled conditions. Beyond that, a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will fund field testing in Arizona forests, accuracy testing against ground-based laser scanning and working with forest managers on real-world applications.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/p>\n

Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new project at Northern Arizona University aims to provide a flexible set of eyes in dense forest canopy, offering value both to U.S. defense systems and\u00a0wildfire\u00a0management\u00a0in northern Arizona.\u00a0 Glasswing\u00a0is an autonomous unoccupied\u00a0aircraft\u00a0system (UAS) that can fly beneath forest canopies, where dense vegetation, unreliable GPS and complex obstacles\u00a0render\u00a0conventional drones useless. It builds on work led…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":76843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}