Robot firefighter puts out its first blaze

Posted by admin on Feb 11, 2015 at 4:20 pm America/Chicago

In Mobile, Alabama, a humanoid robot looked on as a fire burned aboard the USS Shadwell. Its infrared eyes scanned the blaze to find its heart, and its robot arms grabbed a hose to spray water into the inferno. This was the first live test for SAFFiR – the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot – and the first time a robot has ever fought a fire. Developed by roboticists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blackburg for the US Navy, SAFFiR is intended to be part of the firefighting equipment of the future on board every Navy ship, tackling fires without risking human life. The robot, which weighs 63 kilograms and stands 178 centimetres tall, uses dual cameras to help it see and move around, laser sensors to provide the exact distances between objects and thermal cameras to help it find fires. Although SAFFiR can operate autonomously and is able to walk and grab a hose on its own, the current version takes all other instructions from a human operator. Check out more information at newscientist.com