University of Maryland Team Advances to Semifinals in XPRIZE Wildfire Competition

A multidisciplinary research team led by the Department of Fire Protection Engineering (FPE) has been selected as a semifinalist of the international XPRIZE Wildfire competition.

Team “Crossfire,” led by FPE Chair Arnaud Trouvé, is one of 29 global teams invited to participate in the semifinals taking place in March and October 2025. The group brings together strong expertise in fire protection engineering, robotics, autonomous systems, and vertical flight systems.

“This is exciting news,” says Trouvé, “The XPRIZE Wildfire competition pushes the department into the space of technological innovation with great benefits for students and faculty, and if we are successful, with great benefits to society as well!”

Crossfire has moved a step forward in a challenge that involves the development of a system that locates and suppresses a wildfire in an area spanning a thousand square kilometers with challenging wind and terrain conditions in just under 10 minutes.

The team’s solution is based on multiple drones, including a large, long-endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as well as small, multicopter UAVs, standard communication and navigation technologies, dual fire detection technologies (thermal and optical cameras), enhanced water-based fire suppression (water containers featuring an innovative rupture and dispersion mechanism), all integrated into a System of Systems using optimization methods, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms.

Through participation in the XPRIZE competition, the group is part of a larger effort towards new ways to detect, localize and suppress wildfires.

Crossfire department members include master of science student Lindon Luu, Professor Stanislav Stoliarov and Assistant Professor Fernando Raffan-Montoya. Other researchers involved are affiliated with the Maryland Robotics Center, the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center, the UAS Research and Operations Center (UROC), the Maryland Autonomous Technologies Research Innovation and eXploration (MATRIX) Laboratory and the xFoundry@UMD.