The first 15 minutes are crucial for responding to a fire that has just started, firefighters say, and a Greek startup now ensures the fire service can have all the information it needs to tackle a flame from the first spark. This is Probotek, the company that for the last three summers has protected the Syngrou forest in Kifissia and is now expanding to Greek islands and abroad.
Its novel approach concerns the combination of multiple data that sensors, drones etc. supply with the state-of-the-art technological solutions that tech giant Huawei offers, and forms part of a multitude of simple or complex answers by Probotek to various problems in everyday lives.
So how can this startup protect the forests? What Probotek does is fit sensors on tree trunks and other strategic spots that immediately detect and report smoke and high temperature, or other crucial parameters that point to the outbreak of a fire. But that is not all – the forest protection project goes well beyond that: It also involves 5G technology, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and drones, and assists in mitigating a potential disaster by sending evacuation routes to residents’ phones, and planning routes for fire trucks and ambulances.
This is done in cooperation with the 5G network of Nova (having developed an interface) and with the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the Greek Ministry of Agricultural Development for Syngrou forest, even performing scheduled drone flights for monitoring the area. Probotek also cooperates with the University of Athens.
The data are forwarded to a platform where they are processed using AI algorithms to detect any possible fire incidents. In case of detection, drones with cameras take off and approach the point of interest to confirm it and send live information and images to the authorities.
Probotek’s involvement in the firefighting effort Greece engages in every summer began a few years ago: “It all started with the tragedy at Mati in 2018,” explained Panagiotis Apostolopoulos, co-founder and COO of the company – referring to the fire that killed over 105 people in northeastern Attica – as he presented the service at the Huawei Connect Paris 2024 event earlier this month, grabbing international attention. “We thought ‘this has got to stop’ and wondered ‘how do we mitigate human exposure to this phenomenon?’.”
He added that real-time awareness became a huge priority, while “the data we collect from a fire also help us in our training process afterwards.”
The Syngrou Estate has been under Probotek’s monitoring and protection since June 2022, and since the first phase has been perfectly successful, the startup has moved on to the second phase: Last year it started applying its system to the island of Skiathos, “monitoring several areas including the landmark forest of Koukounaries, while it is now about to expand to the island of Kos,” co-founder and CEO George Delaportas tells Kathimerini English Edition. Cyprus is also interested.
Probotek’s project, named “Pyro Sense,” forms part of Huawei’s TECH4ALL initiative, through which the Chinese giant lends its support to pioneering projects across the world. “
“We believe that technology and partnerships are at the heart of digital and green transformation and are central to building an inclusive and sustainable digital world,” said Jeffrey Zhou, President of ICT Marketing at Huawei. “That is the thinking behind our TECH4ALL initiative, which we launched five years ago in 2019 and which today is stronger than ever,” he told the Huawei Connect Paris event.
Huawei actually selected Probotek in 2022 among 800 companies through Elevate Greece so as to support its pilot program against forest fires. Using its experience in communication networks and cloud infrastructures, Huawei supplies the technology that allows for the immediate transmission and processing of large volumes of data.
The application has grabbed the interest of the authorities and private entities in the US, for the development of such solutions across the Atlantic. Now Probotek and its fire protection application have also attracted the attention of other foreign companies, with Delaportas revealing interest from firms in the Balkans.
He adds that while it is now possible to assess the fire risk of any given area for the next 30 minutes, offering a live map of fire risk on a smartphone app by combining air and ground data, the aim is to develop the application of AI further so as to be able to predict fire risk in a longer term, as well as expanding the disaster response application to floods and earthquakes.