Augmented reality mobile digital twin for unmanned aerial vehicle wildfire prevention

Abstract Wildfires have become increasingly critical, affecting forests, air and water quality, soil health, and contributing to climate change. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) have emerged as an effective solution for monitoring and managing wildfires, due to their rapid deployment, low cost, and reduced environmental impact. This study presents a digital twin (DT) system for UAVs that enables users to interact with virtual simulations and real UAVs for wildfire prevention and detection through a smartphone or a tablet. The proposed DT-based system leverages virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) and includes four key services: UAV flight data generator (UAV-FDG), visualization, control, and retrieval. Also, these services allow users to test and train UAV control with a virtual one before moving to real scenarios, reducing risks and costs. The integration of mobile devices increases accessibility and flexibility, enabling real-time monitoring and control of UAVs for wildfire management and facilitating deployment in diverse environments. The main contributions of this research include the proposal, implementation, and validation of a DT-based mobile system for visualization, control, and retrieval using AR, autonomous flight data attribution and movement, and the deployment of DTs of UAVs in real environments. The assessment results showcase the successful implementation of the proposed system, with positive participant feedback, supported by a positive system usability scale score of 79.75.