Background
“Wildland” fires are uncontrolled fires that burn in natural vegetation such as forests, grasslands, what is scrublands, or rangelands. Often occurring in remote areas, these fires can be challenging and dangerous for the fire fighters who work to control them.
Rogo Communications CEO, Rod Goossen, was troubled by the fact that – even today – wildland fire fighters still use paper maps, compasses and two way radios. He conceived and patented a mission-critical communication device designed specifically for wildland fire fighters with the goal of delivering a reliable, field-deployable solution that would maintain connectivity, situational awareness, and safety for teams working under extreme conditions.
Challenges
For this project, Porticos engineers needed to attack the full spectrum of work, from the early concept through the final production design, covering product development services including mechanics, electronics, firmware, and cloud integration. Working with the Rogo team, Porticos sought to identify the best materials and construction for the device.
The custom hardware platform was engineered around an Iridium satellite communication module, with GPS and wifi protocols also in use for data sharing. One challenge with the onboard technology was the intensive power requirements. To address this, Porticos engineers designed a solution with transmissions limited to scheduled intervals or event-driven scenarios. This allows the device to be run on eight standard AA batteries, delivering up to 24 hours of continuous runtime.
The physical device will face extreme environments and needed to be designed to withstand intense scenarios in the field. Porticos engineers created a durable unit capable of surviving IPX5 ingress exposure, and tested the device for high temperature exposure and drops up to 1 meter onto concrete.
Outcomes
The DropBlock has passed all functional and environmental tests. Field testing will commence in early 2026.
For Porticos, this project demonstrates coordination across multiple interfaces: app-to-device communication, device-to-cloud data exchange, secure OTA updates, and robust error handling. Navigating these challenges has resulted in a resilient, scalable platform that meets the demanding needs of emergency responders, and aptly showcases Porticos’ ability to deliver complex, connected products.
