Often during fire incidents, firefighters are unable to access some places which can be dangerous for them. This is what Mitsubishi aims to combat using its new firefighting robots that will battle blazes where human firefighters can’t go.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) recently demoed a pair of autonomous wheeled robots that are designed to battle mainly those hazardous fires, like those caused at petrochemical plants, that too without putting the lives of human firefighters in danger.
The two robots, Water Cannon Robot and Hose Extension Robot, upon reaching the scene will use a combination of GPS and laser sensors to drive themselves to a designation location near the fire, as per Futurism.
The Hose robot will then drive itself to a fire engine or other water source, laying out a heavy duty firehose extension connected to the Cannon robot along the way. Once the hose is connected to the water source, the Cannon robot extinguishes the flames with water or foam; dousing the fire without putting any human firefighters at risk.
MHI’s firefighting robots were designed to function as a part of a Firefighting Robot System that also contains a recon and surveillance robot and a command system. The entire system can fit within a dedicated transport vehicle that will ferry the equipment wherever it is required.
As per New Atlas, MHI is yet to announce if the demonstrated system will actually be put to use, but the demo video surely shows a promising technology of autonomous bots in this area.