Fire is widely known to be one of the earliest discoveries of humanity. Today, despite all the security measures and tools we’ve created, fire is still a strong enemy. Accidental fires are behind every corner as houses are riddled with electrical devices that could burst into flames. The unpredictability of fire, both when it happens and how it will spread, makes even the most experienced firefighters powerless on top of possible collapses or toxic gasses. With the Dragon Firefighter robot, we might finally be at a time where fire can be extinguished without risking human lives.
Robotics to reduce risks
The Dragon Firefighter robot is approximately 4m long and remotely controlled. It is composed of a water hose with nozzles and microcomputers attached at regular intervals over it. As suggested, the water hose is for water propulsion and flight. Meanwhile, the microcomputers are used to coordinate movements to maintain posture and stability during operations.
The cameras and sensors give insights to keep the operation as precise as possible. Fisheye and thermal cameras are also included to ensure all insight is available to the remote worker. Through its development, the Dragon Firefighter went through many iterations. The original version showcased at ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge in Japan was controlled manually instead of remotely. However, the researchers were devoted to keeping this project going and improving the robot.
From there, among they have redesigned the water channels to ensure flying even longer surfaces, extended the nozzle size, and deployed a new passive dumping mechanism. Despite the numerous changes over the years, they concluded in their paper that further work is needed, such as improvements on the mechanical designs and finding less thermosensitive materials.
Conclusion
The Dragon Firefighter can change firefighting efforts, reducing the risk of firefighters getting hurt while saving lives. With firefighting robots, the oldest discovery of man could be handled much safer when lives are at risk. This also makes rescue operations easier with the assistance of robots.
YouTube: Dragon Firefighter (東北大学田所研究室 提供)
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Source: Frontiers
Copyright description for the research graphics in the body of the article: “Copyright 2023 Yamauchi, Maezawa, Ambe, Konyo, Tadakuma, and Tadokoro. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution, or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution, or reproduction that does not comply with these terms is permitted.”
