Russian Students Are Building a 3D Drone Simulator That Trains Operators for Wildfires, Rescue Missions, and Aerial Mapping

An engineering team from Saratov is creating a virtual training ground for drone operators, blending real-world complexity with the safety and scalability of simulation.

A student team from Yuri Gagarin State Technical University in Saratov, Russia, is developing a next-generation 3D simulator aimed at training drone operators for high-stakes tasks like wildfire suppression, search and rescue, and aerial imaging.

The project, created by a group called SkyForge, is built on the Unity game engine and simulates real-world emergency scenarios with a high degree of realism. The system includes interactive 3D models and dynamic, changing environments. Fire propagation, for example, is modeled using both Unity’s built-in tools and custom-developed software modules.

What sets the project apart is its compatibility with actual unmanned aerial systems hardware. That means it’s not just a game — it’s a plug-and-play training platform that could be adopted directly into real-world drone operator education programs.

SkyForge plans to release a minimum viable product (MVP) within the next few months, starting with a single scenario: wildfire response. After that, the team hopes to expand the platform’s capabilities by adding additional scenarios, informed by feedback from early partners and testers.

For now, it’s an ambitious student project. But if it works as promised, the simulator could offer a safer, more cost-effective way to prepare drone pilots for missions where every second — and every decision — counts.