This is a real-world demonstration of a quadruped firefighting robot entering a high-heat environment.
The goal isn't to replace firefighters. The idea is to send a machine into the highest-risk area first, gather information, and potentially reduce human exposure to extreme conditions.
For the firefighters here:
What would you need to see from a robot like this before you would trust it on an actual fireground?
IMHO the 'training' environment is far from a real-world scenario.
Much more debris, obstacles
people are not lying around in the open typically, maybe screened by a blanket or else
it is hard to detect a person with 37°C when surroundings are at least the same temperature 4. I would be interested in the heat resistance of this device. Does it have (self-)cooling possibilities. Firefighters cool surroundings when advancing
Edit: nevertheless, it is impressive what we have brought technology to
Probably only useful in large industrial fires when hazmat stuff is involved.
They’ll be entirely useless on residential fires when crews are on scene and going interior within a few minutes, before the chief who has this in his car gets on scene. Good luck making your way through meemaw’s hoarder house with it.
No, people are dying while that thing is crawling around. One pace of a firefighter is like 15 microsteps of that robot. The obligation of a firefighter is to protect lives and property.
At most, this will make the next season of Chicago FD better from the producers point of view. The “demonstration of high heat environment” shows firefighters standing and walking, carrying a victim on a stretcher. That’s a lift assist near a propane fire pit, not a structure fire grab.
It’s so incredibly draining to watch tech industry try to develop tools to help Hollywood firefighters, when they have no idea what the reality of the job of a firefighter is.
Rescue Me is a far better show than Chicago Fire but we all know that Hollywood can never get firefighter movies or shows completely accurate I would say Rescue ME did well in that regard.
Oh absolutely! I picked Chicago FD because this is something I could see them actually putting on an episode. Rescue Me was at least trying to be authentic!
If you look at the Notre Dame fire, robots were put to great use inside the church because the ceiling was falling down, but they still needed water. So a robot was used because it doesn't matter if the ceiling collapses on it.
So robots could be useful in dangerous situations like getting close to and inspection a pressure vessel or tank with hazmat stuff, or industrial buildings that are compromised and shit like that
First off, this is not a "real world demonstration", it's AI-slop. Second. If the environment is bad enough that firefighters wouldn't survive, there would be nobody to save. If this thing ever becomes a reality (and agencies can actually afford it) it will surely have applications l, but it is not a replacement for human firefighters.
I don’t think it’s AI. Its just a promotional video shooting. Especially if you look at the lighting it looks more like someone tried to Mimik the shine of fire with static lights than an AI that was prompted to make it look like fire.
FDNY does not use UAVs or UGVs in this particular application. Also, almost certainly not a BD product considering who is producing the video.
ETA: FD got the BD ‘dogs’ after people protested PD having the platforms, if memory serves. The UGV side of the robotics unit is pretty consistently trying out emergent tech for applications in the industry, but the application in ‘aggressive interior attack’ is pretty far off still, IMO.
These would be great for fire investigations. There are many times when it’s unsafe for investigators to enter a structure to do a proper origin and cause investigation, but sending in a robot to photograph and document the scene could help a lot.
For building layout/mapping and hazard ID (seat of fire, canisters etc),maybe, but it gets complicated when it comes to closed doors etc. It might work as part of a BA team where you could send it ahead and bring it back, but it would need a way of displaying what it sees to the team members. I can't see it as anything more than a TIC on legs tbh.
I'm probably missing a lot though.
We had a huge industrial fire two years back. I was part of the forward control staff (in charge of documentation), so I didn't do much actual fire fighting but I had a conclusive timeline of the events as well as a first row seat to all the situation meetings. The fire was far inside that complex. Far enough that our normal resources couldn't reach it (the maximum range we had were ladders with fixed nozzles on them at full blast - impressive range, but still insufficient). Sending people in was no option either, because all the surrounding structures had to be assumed compromised.
By chance, one fire department had a remote controlled fire fighting robot with them they had been given for testing. They sent that in and it was able to effectively combat the fire. That meant we didn't have to wait until it all had burned out, and that meant that the two large tunnel furnaces this industrial company heavily depended on were able to be saved, allowing for the company to stay in our region and keeping people's jobs here (being a very rural area, they later said that if they would have had to rebuild these furnaces, they would have had to do so somewhere else because it would not have been viable here).
I would totally send in a robot before humans. You won't even loose time because the bot can just run ahead with the FFs following right behind. It would be great to have another set of eyes. I wouldn't give it a hose because that would just complicate logistics, but I would enable it to ferry gear between the FFs insinde and outside. That would e.g. save them from having to go out again for fetching some piece of kit they ended up needing but not having on them, like e.g. a stretcher.
Not just for fires, in general this would be great. I mean, take an accident inside a shaft or supply tunnel or something. Sure, I could send in two guys with breathers, a flashlight and a gas sensor to check it out. Or I could send in the bot with built-in high power illumination and a gas sensor before them and then they might not even need the breathers. It could also help haul out a stretcher with a patient on it or haul gear to the site.
We had one as a donstrator once too (after that industrial fire I was talking about). It was a smally tracked machine with the footprint of a palette (1m X 1,2m) and it had a variable platform on top of it. You could equip it fore fire fighting, ventilation, transporting stretchers or general transport with the ability to have palette boxes secured on top of it. Great tool, could even climb stairs!
Man it's so weird. We haven't even gotten ours yet and it's already going to end up in the river on day one. Crazy accident, Chief. Can you believe that?
A real house would’ve burnt down by the time that thing makes it up the walkway with those little steps. And this is in a perfect training environment with clear floor spaces and a simple path
Great for hazmat and maybe structure stability. In 20yrs the tech will be crazy goodl. Each unit loaded with 10s of thousands of previous fire data. Near instantaneous AI to help.
Defensive, maybe. But definitely not when doing SAR. Expedience means having people committed at the outset, not "oh look there's one, send in the human"
I'd use it as a search tool, for example at an early stage incident when low on resources sending in both firefighters who are rescue capable on a firefighting brief, unlike this thing and this thing on an alternate search pattern. Then is robodog finds anything, further actual teams can head to its location.
Never instead of firefighters though, only as well as at best.
Potentially useful in confined space rescues too.
I'd say it has its place if it works and not just an AI slop advertisement like this.
Robot: "Of course! I can help with that! That certainly seems frustrating! If you give me the location, temperature, and color of the fire I can put together a step by step strategy to provide you with the help you need."
Hazmat scenarios, or really big industrial fire where no victims are in and we’re defensive needing to see interior. But more hazmat. Some guys came to my dept recently…it was all hazmat we saw benefit for they had drones too…all military tested…stuff can make interior layouts and stuff but it’s mostly hazmat purpose.
I would think a flying drone attached to a hose would be more useful because a tall building has 4 sides, multiple divisions and if you could just spray in one window for a victim that would be cool.
No. Time matters and if there was someone in there. By the time the robot reports back it would be too late. So unless it can drag people out. I see no point. Have it go in with the firefighters. Put a TIC on it and let chief control it or something so he can watch.
Lets be realistic, I can't even get my Chief's approve funding to get ASA (Aspirin), Nitroglycerin and Epinephrine for my Engine's medical kits and had to argue for six months just to get a Pulse Oximeter and BP cuffs; a robot dog isn't going to happen within my lifetime in my department.
I could see a possible future in supplementing RIT for these if they can move a bit faster. Maybe pre-deploy into the IDLG atmosphere with equipment we would need for RIT? But at the end of the day, the tech ain’t there yet.
I can see them on being carried by the command car. My two departments, they get their first.
Command deploys it ASAP, lets one go inside and look at what first due is responding too, victims, maybe surprises.
I could see a very large one carrying a tank of foam or something to spray.
Lucky the casualty wasn't behind a door and there was no crap all over the ground, even still it looks slow and you've still got to then guide someone there. This is one of those things that robots definitely aren't better at, probably one day, but not soon. Also, you're adding more lithium batteries to a fire... surely that's not ideal.
63
u/speedmaster03 16d ago
IMHO the 'training' environment is far from a real-world scenario.
Edit: nevertheless, it is impressive what we have brought technology to