EXHALO
Autonomous Rapid Smoke Extraction
Smoke asphyxiation, not flame, causes about 70% of fire deaths, and in a high-rise the first 15 minutes decide who gets out. The stack effect fills the upper floors within minutes, yet firefighters often arrive later. Exhalo is an autonomous smoke-control drone built for that gap, buying residents survival time when they need it most. Launched from the rooftop the instant a fire is detected, it descends the façade, rotates 90° to anchor, cuts an opening in the glass and extracts smoke with a toroidal fan, creating breathable zones on occupied floors. Exhalo does not fight the fire itself; it keeps residents breathing until firefighters arrive.
Smoke is the greater threat than flame in high-rise fires.
How might we reduce fatality in a high-rise fire? With limited time and resources, the answer is not to extinguish as much fire as possible. Smoke, not flame, is the greater threat, overcoming victims before the fire reaches them or firefighters arrive. The question became: how might we keep the air breathable in the first 15 minutes? Dampers limit how smoke spreads but cannot clear rooms already filled. Exhalo works from outside, launching on the building’s own alarm and venting smoke rapidly at the window nearest the fire. This buys time for everyone, especially those slowest to escape, such as older adults and people with limited mobility.
Form follows the mission, expressed through three qualities. Pre-striking: like a peregrine falcon, its ring and folded legs form a silhouette poised to stoop. Steady endurance: like a spider on a window, four double-hinged legs grip the glass as gecko-inspired pads hold firm during extraction, while outflow pulls Exhalo tighter to the glass surface. Sentinel presence: anchored in a symbolic X, it signals protection. The monofan completes the silhouette and is the form best suited to extracting smoke; orange marks rescue gear, and LEDs announce arrival. Diving from above, its dark silhouette evokes trust and safety, ready to rescue residents.
Form follows the Mission
By removing smoke Exhalo buys the critical 15mins before firefighters arrive.
Triggered by existing fire sensors, Exhalo launches from the rooftop without delay and descends to the fire floor. Thermal and LiDAR sensors guide it, while coaxial counter-rotating rotors cancel torque. At the window nearest the fire, it rotates 90°, anchors with friction pads and cuts an exhaust port with a blade rotating around its rim, then holds steady as the monofan extracts smoke, its thrust pressing it tighter against the glass. Smoke goes out of the building, not up, sparing residents from asphyxiation. Fully autonomous and retrofittable to any high-rise, one or more units work each fire floor, buying time until firefighters arrive.
Thinking outside the box, Exhalo fights the direct cause of death.
The stack effect makes high-rise fires deadly. Exhalo rethinks the problem in three moves. It reframes the role: firefighting drones fight flames, but Exhalo removes smoke, the main cause of death. It inverts the space: where conventional smoke control works inside the building, Exhalo vents from outside, through the façade. It redirects the physics: the same buoyancy that drives smoke up through the building now carries it out through the port, assisted by the fan. Each move serves one goal: buying time in the first 15 minutes.
Retrofitted to existing buildings, Exhalo can protect any high-risers.
High-rise fires put many residents in the path of the stack effect at once. By extracting smoke early, Exhalo reduces deaths from asphyxiation, gives those slowest to escape more time and eases the burden on fire crews. As a retrofit, it brings older, dense housing the protection of new buildings, without the construction work that replacing whole-building systems would require. Each unit is designed to be recovered, inspected and reused after every mission. Because its descent relies largely on gravity, its battery is spent mainly on smoke extraction, and a single rooftop team can serve the entire building.
Innovative
Coaxial Extraction
By featuring a mono-fan structure powered by two co-axial blades rotating in opposite directions, Exhalo can cut-out a single circular hole and rapidly extract lethal smoke as soon as it attaches itself onto a glass pane wihtout wasting redundant energy on conventional quad-rotor settings.
