Firefighting Drones

Dryad wins contest for ultra-early wildfire detection

Dryad Networks, a Berlin-based environmental company focused on ultra-early wildfire detection, was awarded $800,000 in the XPRIZE Wildfire competition for its performance in the Autonomous Wildfire Response finals in Alaska, per a September 23 press release.

Dryad advanced from an original field of approximately 300 entrants in the four-year competition. In June 2026, three finalists were challenged to autonomously detect and completely suppress a high-risk wildfire within 10 minutes of ignition across 1,000 km² of Alaskan wilderness, leaving any decoy fires untouched. It was the most demanding live test to date of what it will take to stop a destructive fire before it grows out of control.

With the award, XPRIZE recognized in particular Dryad’s 170-sensor persistent Silvanet field network combined with Silvaguard drones for demonstrating "end-to-end autonomy."

Silvanet uses solar-powered, AI-enabled gas sensors as an “electronic nose” to detect wildfire signatures within minutes of ignition. Its solar-powered mesh network enables sensors to communicate deep inside forests, off-grid and independently of mobile networks. The fully industrialized system has more than 40,000 sensors manufactured, including recent deliveries of 10,000 sensors to France and more than 7,000 to Italy.

Silvaguard extends Silvanet from detection to autonomous response. When a sensor triggers an alert, a Silvaguard observation drone autonomously launches, verifies and precisely geolocates the fire using infrared and optical cameras. A suppression drone then deploys up to 100 liters of suppressant on the fire. Both operate autonomously with no human operator in the loop and are designed to be stationed in forests in solar-powered protective hangars, continuously charged and ready to respond.

Dryad will now invest significantly in productizing Silvaguard, with real-world operational pilots planned for 2027 and commercial availability targeted for 2028.

“Wildfires are a race against time,” said Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO and Co-Founder of Dryad Networks. “Instead of building bigger machines to fight bigger fires, our goal is to prevent fires from becoming big in the first place. XPRIZE has provided powerful validation that autonomous wildfire response can make that vision a reality.”