About firefighting support using PRODRONE RESCUE during forest fires in Yamanashi Prefecture

Since January 13, 2026, Prodrone Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, President and CEO: Shunsuke Totani; hereinafter referred to as "Prodrone") has been using drones to provide support for firefighting at a forest fire that occurred in Ogiyama, located on the border of Uenohara City and Otsuki City, Yamanashi Prefecture. This activity was undertaken in response to a request from Yamanashi Prefecture to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force for disaster relief dispatch, and a request for cooperation from the Japan UAS Industry Promotion Association (JUIDA), in which we participated as a member of JUIDA's disaster response unit, JUIDA-D³.■ History of activities and support systemThis activity was carried out based on a collaborative scheme between Yamanashi Prefecture, the Self-Defense Forces, JUIDA, and our company. At the scene, a total of nine helicopters from the Self-Defense Forces and the fire department were operating drones under a high-density airspace environment in which firefighting operations were carried out without interruption, while making strict adjustments in altitude and time.■Main activities and resultsDisaster prevention drone PRODRONE RESCUE '' and carried out the following missions.(1) Identification of flash point location and information sharingUsing a thermal camera, we identified detailed fire points and heat sources that are difficult to identify by visual inspection or smoke alone. The information collected was provided as material for determining water spray points by helicopter, lifting evacuation orders, and canceling the 24-hour monitoring system by the fire brigade.

Image from the visible camera on the left, image from the thermal camera on the right

Flash point plot diagram

(2) Activity support for ground forcesWe communicated the fire point location and surrounding conditions to ground forces (fire department, Self-Defense Forces, etc.) from approximately 50 meters in the air using speakers, supporting the safe execution of missions in forested areas.

PRODRONE RESCUE night flight

■ Lessons learned from operations and future actionsIn this activity, we confirmed that stable information collection is possible using automatic flight settings even in a beyond-visual-visual flight environment where video transmission is interrupted. On the other hand, issues specific to disaster sites have also become clear, such as ensuring wide range radio wave propagation in large-scale fires and strengthening the ability to instantly display fire point coordinates. Prodrone will feed back the knowledge gained through this activity to product development and operational systems, and will continue to strive for technical cooperation in highly public emergencies.[What is Prodrone Co., Ltd.]With the vision of "becoming the most trusted drone company in the region," we aim to build a drone ecosystem in the Chubu region. We provide a one-stop service for everything from development to production of industrial drones, including the PD6B-Type3 multicopter, which has started mass production with a maximum recommended payload of 20kg, and the Prodrone GT-M, which can fly long distances (100km tested).