2013 Fifth International Conference on Computational Intelligence, Communication Systems and Networks

Forest Fire Detection in Wireless Sensor Network Using Fuzzy Logic

Pouya Bolourchi and Sener Uysal

Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department
Eastern Mediterranean University
Gazimagusa, Mersin 10 Turkey
pouya.bolorchi@cc.emu.edu.tr
sener.uysal@emu.edu.tr

Abstract—The multi-purpose integrated homeland surveillance
security systems are usually located in remote areas. Intelligent
decision making (IDM) capability emerges as the primary feature
in the realization of the T/R architecture. The aim of employing
IDM is two-fold. First is to save energy, as the system operation is
desired to be autonomous based on the available solar power and
the corresponding battery-bank. Second is to activate the
necessary action(s) required based on the pre-defined sensitivity
levels. The current work is focused on the second aim using the
pre-defined sensitivity levels. We propose to use a wireless sensor
network (WSN) for data harvesting to be used as raw input data
into our control system. Fire detection has been chosen to
illustrate the IDM capability of the system. A Fuzzy Logic
algorithm is developed using five membership functions as
temperature, smoke, light, humidity and distance. Simulation
results for the probability of fire based on the fuzzy rules using
the status of the membership functions are presented in the
paper.
Keywwords— Fire Detection, Fuzzy Logic, Homeland Security,
Intelligent Decision Making System, Natural Hazards, Wireless
Sensor Network, Wireless Surveillance.
I. INTRODUCTION
Low cost Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been
developed and widely used in a variety of applications like
automotive engineering, defense, safety, medical, home and
environment [1], precision agriculture, animal tracing,
security, surveillance, urban terrain tracing, civil structure
monitoring, transportation and entertainment. Some
environmental applications of WSNs involve tracking the
movements of animals and people, monitoring environmental
circumstances that affect crops, chemical biological detection,
precision agriculture, forest fire detection, meteorological or
geophysical research and flood detection [2].
WSNs are mainly designed for monitoring and controlling
events in a high risk area such as forests, mountainous terrain
and cross-border; therefore, frequent maintenance becomes
costly and unrealistic. As a result, the proposed system
introduces a method that is self-sufficient in providing a stable
power supply. Solar systems can provide the power needed for
a WSN and minimize human intervention by creating a
completely autonomous operation.
Numerous techniques for making an intelligent decision
were introduced. Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) [3] is one that is
capable of making real time decisions, even without having all
the information about the event. Since this technique deals
with linguistic variables in a natural way instead of logic
variables, it is highly suitable for applications with
uncertainties. Likewise, it can be used for many conditions by
combining different rules together to produce the suitable
result [4].
This paper uses FLS for making intelligent decisions for an
innovative wireless surveillance system employing a WSN for
different applications [5]. The paper is organized as follows:
the next section discusses the design of a WSN and section 3
gives an overview of fuzzy logic technique in Part A and
forest fire detection is explained in detail in Part B. The results
are discussed in section 4.
II. WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK STRUCTURE
Varieties of architectures for a WSN have been proposed in
the literature. Clustering structure is one, in which the network
is divided into different fragments. Each fragment is called a
cluster. Each cluster also consists of a large number of nodes
and each node is composed of different sensors,
microcontroller, power source, memory and transceiver. For
each cluster there is one node called cluster head. A sensor
node collects the environmental information and transmits it to
the cluster head.
Cluster head aggregates the data and forwards just the
minimum required data to the sink node forwards just the
minimum required data to the sink node known as the base
station (BS). The sink node collects the data and transmits the
data to users via antennas [6].The proposed WSN structure
consists of sensors, analog to digital convertor (ADC),
isolators, real time clock (RTC), microcontroller (MCU),
transceiver module, actuators and solar power adapter. Sensors
used in fire detection application are temperature, smoke,
light, humidity and distance. ADC converts the ambient
(analog) data to digital inputs and MCU receives the digital

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DOI 10.1109/CICSYN.2013.32
 RTC
Sensors ADC Isolators MCU
Low level
Decisions control
Applications Actuators
Stand-alone Power System Power adapter Memory
Fig 1. Block diagram of the architectural structure of the proposed solar powered WSN.
inputs for further processing. RTC keeps track of current time
by means of a small memory. Time values are for year, month,
day, hours, minutes, and seconds.
MCU itself makes an intelligent decision for low sensitivity
levels. For medium and high level of decisions MCU transfers
data via transceiver module to a BS for monitoring.
Monitoring can be completed by a user, internet protocol or a
GSM network. Solar power is a stand-alone power system
(SAPS) which is widely used in remote areas where mains
electricity is not available. The proposed structure consists of
both digital and analog outputs for different applications. Fig 1
illustrates the digital part of the proposed WSN structure.
III. FUZZY LOGIC SYSTEM
A. Overview
Lotfi Zadeh reported the first Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) in
1965 [7] that introduces the concept of linguistic variables in
contrast to logic variables. FLS can have a continuous value
between zero and one which are approximate values. The
basic structure of FLS consists of fuzzification, inference and
defuzzification. Fuzzification is a process that crisp inputs are
converted to fuzzy inputs. A membership function (MF)
demonstrates the degree of truth of each input and output. MF
has a value between 0 and 1 over an interval of the crisp
variable. The mostly used shapes for membership functions
are triangular, trapezoidal and bell curves. Each MF has
different variables according to number of variables which are
pre-defined for each individual input/output. In fire detection
application, the five inputs that we have used are temperature,
smoke, light, humidity and distance. MF for output, which is
the probability of fire, has five variables as follows: very low
(VL), low (L), medium (M), high (H) and very high (VH).
MFs for temperature, smoke and light have three variables as
low (L), medium (M) and high (H) and MF for distance has
three variables as close, average and far. These fuzzy inputs
are then fed into the inference in which the fuzzy rule base
Secure High level human
Alarms monitoring center
GSM Central Unit
Transceiver Network Co-Processors
Module
Transceiver
Module
Medium level decisions
Internet Intelligent controller
Protocol
Backup System
manages the inference for yielding a fuzzy output. The fuzzy
rule is written as the following statement:
IF x1 is F1 and x2 is F2 …and xn is Fn THEN y is yk (1)
Although different fuzzy rule base can be used, Mamdani
[8] and Sugeno [9] methods are the most commonly used in
many applications due to their effortless concepts. In this
paper, Mamdani method is used. In Mamdani type the focus is
to find the centroid of a two-dimensional function by
integrating across a continuously varying function [10]. In
1975, Ebrahim Mamdani built the first fuzzy system to control
a steam engine and boiler combination that mimics human
operators. Final step is to convert those fuzzy outputs to crisp
outputs, which is called defuzzifications.
B. Forest Fire Detection
The following steps are used for the application of detecting
the probability of fire using FLS.
Step 1: Specific range is defined for each crisp input
and number of variables for each membership function is pre-
defined as follows:
X1: Temperature (0˚C to 120˚C) (V, M, H)
X2: Smoke (0 to 100 ppm) (L, M, H)
X3: Light (0 to 1000 lux) (L, M, H)
X4: Humidity (0 to 100 ppm) (L, M, H)
X5: Distance (0 to 80m) (Close, Medium, Far)
The degree of membership is determined by drawing the
selected input parameter into the horizontal axis and
projecting vertically to the upper boundary of the MF. First
graph in Fig 2 shows MF of temperature. Horizontal axis
represents the range of input crisp that is from 0 to 120˚C.
Vertical axis is normalized and indicates degree of
membership. For 80˚C only rules associated with medium and
high will actually apply to the output response.
Step 2: Based on the relations between the inputs the desired
output can be achieved. We may assume that temperature,
smoke and light are low, humidity is high and distance is far.
Output achieved by these assumptions is addressed to very
low, i.e., for these inputs probability of fire is very low.
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 For simplicity, in order to define a new output, each time
Low Medium High
only one degree of membership of an input is modified. It is
highly recommended to form a table instead of dealing with if-
then sentences.
0.5
Table I shows an alternative way for demonstrating fuzzy
rules superseded by if-then sentence. When defining new
0 20 40 60 80 120 rules, bold fonts, as shown in the table, indicate how often a
modification will take place for each input.
Very-Low Low Medium High Very-High
TABLE I. FIRST TEN FUZZY RULES FOR FIRE DETACTION
PROBLEM
Rul Temp Smoke Light Humidity Distance Output
1 L L L H Far VL
2 L L L H Avg VL
3 L L L H Close VL
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
4 L L L M Far VL
Fig 2 MF for temperature and output 5 L L L M Avg VL
6 L L L M Close L
7 L L L L Far VL
With the same assumptions new rules can be produced if 8 L L L L Avg L
desired. The maximum number of possibilities for considering 9 L L L L Close L
all rules according to these inputs is 243 since all five inputs 10 L L M H Far VL
have 3 degrees of membership. Although it is not necessary to
add all the possibilities, a robust result requires more rules. Step 3: The final step is defuzzification process in which
The first 10 rules are as follows: fuzzy output converts to a single number. There are diverse
1- If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light built-in methods applied for defuzzification: centroid, bisector,
is low) and (humidity is high) and (distance is far) then (threat middle of maximum (the average of the maximum value of the
of fire is very low) output set), largest of maximum, and smallest of maximum.
2- If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light Centroid method is commonly used in many applications.
is low) and (humidity is high) and (distance is average) then As an example, for probability of fire, we assume that the
(threat of fire is very low) temperature is 20˚C, smoke 30ppm, light 300lux, humidity
3- If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light 80ppm and distance 70m. For each sensor, the level of
is low) and (humidity is high) and (distance is close) then sensitivity is predefined. When temperature is 20˚C and the
(threat of fire is very low) range is between low and medium the weight scales are 0.7 for
4- If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light low and 0.2 for medium sensitivity; for medium sensitivity of
is low) and (humidity is medium) and (distance is far) then light has a greater weight than low sensitivities and for
(threat of fire is very low) humidity, high sensitivity has a greater weight in comparison
5- If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light to its medium level. Distance has a higher weight scale in the
is low) and (humidity is medium) and (distance is average) far area rather than close area and it can be estimated that it
then (threat of fire is very low) has a scale of 0.1 for closer areas and about 0.7 for far areas.
6- If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light By use of fuzzy logic toolbox the threat of fire can be easily
is low) and (humidity is medium) and (distance is close) then calculated. In the given example the probability of fire is
(threat of fire is low) calculated and the result is 27.8%. Fig 3 shows the first 30
7- If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light rules. It consists of six columns. The first five columns
is low) and (humidity is low) and (distance is far) then (threat indicate value of temperature, smoke, light, humidity and
of fire is very low) distance respectively and the last column represents the
8- If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light output. Each row shows the corresponding rules. For example,
is low) and (humidity is low) and (distance is average) then the first row:
(threat of fire is low) If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light is low)
9- If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light and (humidity is high) and (distance is far) then (threat of fire
is low) and (humidity is low) and (distance is close) then is very low)
(threat of fire is low) MF of temperature has three variables and rule 1 for
10- If (temperature is low) and (smoke is low) and (light temperature illustrates to what extend the low variable for
is medium) and (humidity is high) and (distance is far) then temperature affects the output of the first rule. For
(threat of fire is very low) temperature, 20˚C indicates the range between low and
medium. Therefore, the low part which has a weight scale of
0.7, it can be observed that about 70% of its low part is

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selected which is shown in yellow color. For humidity, focus
is on a high sensitivity level that has a scale of 80ppm, and has
a weight of 0.8. Weight of low level for the first rule for light
(300lux), smoke (30ppm) and far level of distance (70m) is 80

Threat-of-fire (percent)
also given in yellow color. Since for all the rules the AND
60
fuzzy operations are applied, the intersection or minimum
between the two sets are expressed as: 20
PAˆPBˆPCˆPDˆPE(x) = min [PA(x), PB(x), PC(x), PD(x),
PE(x)] (2) 0
where μ is the degree of truth for each crisp input. A, B, C,
D and E are temperature, smoke, light, humidity and distance 100
50
respectively. Distance (m) 40
80 0 Temperature(c)
For the last 28 rules, since all temperature values have no
weight and according to equation 2 the minimum value of all
the inputs are evaluated for the corresponding outputs, there is
no weight for any of the outputs in these 28 rules. The first 30 70

Threat-of-fire (percent)
rules, however, represent the outputs due to corresponding
inputs.
Temp=20 Smoke=30 Light=300 Humidity=80.Distance=70 Fire=27.8 50
1

30
0 100

Distance (m) 40 50
80 0 Smoke (ppm)

30
0 120 0 100 0 1000 0 100 0 80 0 100
90
Fig 3 30 rules of fuzzy logic for the given example.
Threat-of-fire (percent)

With a similar strategy, detecting and evaluating the 50

probability of fire for the new inputs is not a complicated task.
different outcomes obtained from these experiments. For a 30
better prediction of the output, for the first 6 experiments each
0
time 4 inputs are fixed and only the fifth one is varied. The 1000
last four experiments illustrate the output changes due to multi Distance (m) 500
40
variations in the inputs. 80 0 Light (lux)
TABLE II. EVALUATING PROBABILITY OF FIRE FOR DIFFERENT
SITUATIONS
Temp Smoke Light Humidity Distance Threat
(C) (ppm) (lux) (ppm) (m) of Fire 70
Threat-of-fire (percent)

(percent
age)
1 20 30 300 80 70 27.8
2 80 30 300 80 70 41 50
3 20 80 300 80 70 33.8
4 20 30 900 80 70 39.7
5 20 30 300 100 70 19.3
6 20 30 300 80 50 30.3
7 80 80 300 80 70 50 0
8 80 80 800 80 70 53.6
9 80 80 800 40 70 63.1 50 0
Distance (m) 50
10 100 80 800 40 20 70.1
100 Humidity (ppm)
IV. DISCUSSION
Fig 4. Surface views of threat of fire.
In this section we analyze input-output relations and check
surface relations. Fig 4.a represents surface view of threat of As it can be observed from the graph, when distance is far
fire with respect to distance and temperature. (about 80m) and temperature has a low sensitivity (near to

86
0˚C), the output is zero that indicates very low level of
sensitivity. As temperature value increases to 20˚C and
distance reaches to 60m then threat of fire is about 20%. When
both temperature and distance reaches to their average value
(i.e., temperature is about 50˚C and distance 40m) the
probability of fire increases up to 50%. If distance is between
40m and 80m, and temperature varies from 50˚C to 100˚C
then the output is about 70%. However, if we increase the
temperature value to its maximum, which is 120˚C, and
distance to its minimum value which is 0m then the threat of
fire gets its maximum value which is about 90%. Total
number of surface views is 10. Just 4 graphs are represented in
Fig 4. Fig 4 (a-d) illustrate surface views of threat of fire with
respect to distance, temperature, smoke, light and humidity
respectively.

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper the main focus is to make an intelligent
decision using a fuzzy logic system in wireless sensor
networks for forest fire detection. With means of fuzzy logic
toolbox in MATLAB we are able to find the probability of fire
and further deeper analysis can be done to observe effects of
each input on the entire system. In addition, it can be easily
implemented and modified during the process.

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