Wildfire Simulation & UAV Data Pipeline Developer

Title

Wildfire Simulation & UAV Data Pipeline Developer (GIS + Python + 3D Simulation)

Description

We are developing a simulation pipeline to model wildfire environments and generate synthetic UAV-collected datasets for research and machine learning applications.

The goal is to integrate real-world geospatial and environmental datasets into a simulation environment and emulate UAV data collection (e.g., LiDAR, thermal, RGB, multispectral) along pre-defined flight paths.

We are looking for a developer (or small team) with experience in geospatial data, simulation environments, and data pipelines to help build an MVP system.

Scope of Work

The system will:

1. Ingest and Process Geospatial Datasets

Fire perimeters (historical burn boundaries)

Active fire / thermal hotspot data

Vegetation and fuel maps

Weather data (wind, humidity, temperature)

Terrain elevation data

2. Construct a Simulation Environment (3D Preferred)

Terrain and vegetation modeling

Time-based fire progression (basic modeling acceptable)

Tools may include Cesium, Unity, Unreal, or similar

3. Simulate UAV Flights

Pre-programmed flight paths (no real-time autonomy required)

Maintain altitude relative to terrain (AGL)

4. Generate Synthetic Sensor Outputs

LiDAR-style point clouds

Thermal imagery (heat signatures)

RGB imagery

Multispectral outputs (for vegetation/burn analysis)

GPS and IMU telemetry for each frame

5. Output Structured Datasets

Time-series aligned (4D: space + time)

Suitable for downstream machine learning workflows

Tech Stack (Flexible)

Preferred experience in:

Python (data processing and pipelines)

GIS tools (GDAL, raster/vector processing, geospatial data handling)

Simulation frameworks (CesiumJS, Unity, Unreal Engine, WebGL, or similar)

Experience with LiDAR or geospatial visualization

Nice to Have:

Experience with environmental or remote sensing data

Experience designing data pipelines (ETL workflows)

Cloud compute (AWS, GCP, etc.)

Deliverables

Functional simulation pipeline (MVP)

Data ingestion and preprocessing scripts

UAV simulation with configurable flight paths

Exportable dataset format (structured and documented)

Important

This is a research-oriented project.

More detailed specifications, datasets, and implementation details will be shared after initial screening.