Dryad Wins International XPRIZE Wildfire Award for Autonomous Wildfire Detection and Suppression

Dryad Networks, a leader in ultra-early wildfire detection, today announced it has been awarded $800,000 in the XPRIZE Wildfire competition for its performance in the Autonomous Wildfire Response finals in Alaska.

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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.

During the tests, the Dryad’s Silvanet sensor network successfully detected and verified target fire in 12 minutes or less and autonomously launched a response, ignoring any decoy fires. The autonomous Silvaguard Observation Drone provided situational awareness and the Suppression Drone accurately hit the fire with suppressant – providing a strong proof of concept for the competition end goal.

The XPRIZE Wildfire Judging Panel awarded $2.5 million across three Track B Finalist teams, recognizing distinct breakthroughs across the autonomous wildfire response cycle. Together, this demonstrates meaningful advances toward the competition’s ambitious goal and provided a clearer picture of what is possible today — and where further innovation is still needed.

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.

“This award is a tremendous external validation of our technology and vision,” said Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO and Co-Founder of Dryad Networks. “Our vision is fully aligned with XPRIZE Wildfire: detect and extinguish fires within 10 minutes of ignition. To achieve this, fires must be detected within minutes, ideally during the smoldering phase before open flames appear and spread rapidly.”

“Ultra-early detection is a prerequisite for autonomous suppression. Drones can suppress a small ignition, but their limited payload makes them largely ineffective once a wildfire has grown out of control. Silvanet detects the fire when it is still tiny, and Silvaguard can verify, locate and suppress it autonomously.”

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,” Brinkschulte concluded. “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.”

For XPRIZE, the end of the competition is not the end of the work. XPRIZE Wildfire will move into an Impact Phase focused on helping translate promising technologies into durable, deployable solutions for real-world wildfire management.

About XPRIZE

XPRIZE is the recognized global leader in designing and executing large-scale competitions to solve humanity’s greatest challenges. For over 30 years, our unique model has democratized crowd-sourced innovation and scientifically scalable solutions that accelerate a more equitable and abundant future. Donate, learn more, and co-architect a world of abundance with us at xprize.org.

More info: https://www.xprize.org/wildfire

About Dryad Networks

Dryad Networks mission is to detect wildfires in their earliest stages and enable autonomous suppression before they become catastrophic. Dryad’s solutions protect forests, communities, critical infrastructure, and the climate from the growing threat of wildfires.

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