Korean Team Tests AI-Powered Automatic Firefighting System Aboard Ship

South Korean researchers have developed an advanced AI-powered firefighting system that can independently identify a petroleum fire, activate, and concentrate the discharge of firefighting foam at the blaze. The team believes that it is the only system of its kind to successfully complete both shoreside and shipboard testing.

The research group from the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials took aim at the problem of oil fires on warships, caused by leaking distillate fuel from engines, generators or aircraft. Their goal was to engineer an autonomous firefighting system that could act on its own and extinguish a pool of burning oil in real-world shipboard conditions, including dealing with ship motion in higher sea states.

The team wanted to avoid a flooding solution, the typical approach to fixed firefighting systems, because it causes mess and damage in the event of a false alarm. Instead, they combined foam sprayers with a range of 75 feet with sensors and an AI-based detection, activation and control unit. To test it, they mounted it in a land-based simulation facility that looks and moves like the interior of a ship. After verifying that the system would not begin automatically spraying foam at normal heat sources (like welding arcs, lighters or electric heaters), the team tested it out successfully on open-area oil fires of up to 50 square feet - conditions representative of a jet fuel fire on deck aboard an aircraft carrier. This produced positive results, and the detection unit proved to be more than 98 percent accurate, the team said.

To cap off the test series, the team brought the system aboard a tank landing ship (LST), the ROKS Ilchulbong, and took it out to sea in wave heights of about three feet. The system was able to accurately deliver extinguishing water onto a fire source in these conditions from a range of about 60 feet. To get to this result, the team created an algorithm that takes the ship's motion into consideration in real time to adjust the water monitor's aim.

"This technology is applicable not only to various naval vessels but also to ammunition depots, military supply warehouses, aircraft hangars, and offshore plants. Its future expansion to civilian ships and petrochemical facilities will significantly enhance fire safety at sea and in industrial settings," said senior researcher Hyuk Lee.