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Robotics In The Fire Service
We can employ a robot to vacuum up the cat hair in the living room and another to mow the lawn and clean up leaves and yard debris.
Is anyone using robots to search for possible victims in, say...Abandoned Buildings?
All this talk of risk management and LODD and Chicago, etc, reminds me of something I thought about thirty years ago. I know I've seen military prototypical robots that had shown potential for use in bomb searches. I haven't followed things, so I've no idea what's been going on in that regard. I vaguely recall something from a few years ago, involving a robot finding an interior bomb of some sort.
I can't help but wonder if most of, if not all, of the interior fire attacks may someday be done by expendable electro-mechanical devices, rather than risking human life.
Is anyone using robots to search for possible victims in, say...Abandoned Buildings?
All this talk of risk management and LODD and Chicago, etc, reminds me of something I thought about thirty years ago. I know I've seen military prototypical robots that had shown potential for use in bomb searches. I haven't followed things, so I've no idea what's been going on in that regard. I vaguely recall something from a few years ago, involving a robot finding an interior bomb of some sort.
I can't help but wonder if most of, if not all, of the interior fire attacks may someday be done by expendable electro-mechanical devices, rather than risking human life.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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Something probably not considered is the fire in most cases, which reduces the time. In the examples provided the building is still safe, despite the bomb threat, in most cases there is time enough to conduct such a search.
Now try and employ the same theory to the fire service and you now contend with a lack of time. The fire is burning, thus weakening structural members, the building and so forth, you don't have time to wait around to have some search robot brought in. Then there is the people factor, again while waiting for the robot to do the job, if people are indeed found trapped, how much longer are they being exposed to the smoke and fire elements. Then you have the risk factor involved to the firefighters as well, the ones who would have to go in and perform rescue, now probably under more adverse and structurally compromised conditions, thus furthering a chance for injury or death.
The way I see it is that every scene does come down to risk management. It depends upon the conditions and factors found on the scene to provide the clues for decision making, but in the end, the job is still inherently dangerous and despite the best safety standards and inititives it will still entail people to risk their lives.
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Permalink Reply by Doug Beauchamp on
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Howe and Howe tech on discovery channel developed a robot for this I saw it about two or three weeks ago it was tested and passed the test the fire department put it through it also had a fire suppression system on it
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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Tokyo Japan has been using robots for firefighting and rescue work. They have Rainbow Five which is carried to the scene in a pod and then dispatched by the operator into the operation with a water cannon.
They have a rescue robot that will approach a victim and then using robotic arms and a conveyor ramp to remove the victim from endangerment by pulling them inside the body of the robot.
The Navy had a firefighting robot that had to have hoses attached to it attack a fire in a ammo storage building in our area. They would bring it to public events to show it off.
Our fire dept bomb team has a robot they use for bomb operations. They even used it to go after a suspect in a building for the police dept.
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The Navy had a firefighting robot that had to have hoses attached to it attack a fire in a ammo storage building in our area. They would bring it to public events to show it off.
I'm going to have to inquire with the where and when this occurred. I was in the NAvy for 5 years as a Damage Controlman and know and understand the fundamentals of Navy FF. Never once was there a robot to attack a fire in an ammo area etc. I will not say this didn't occur, but I will say chances are such a thing was an experimental device in which it probably was never implemented.
For the record, damn near very ship has a magazine and weapons area and for the most part, has a suppression system involved with such area. The use of such a robot probably isn't feasible, nor even widespread. I'll check with my sources, but actuality of use is doubtful.
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The robot was at a land based ammo facility in the Washington DC area which is now closed. A few of our vol members were federal firefighters there.
Here are some of the Japanese robots that are used href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2OzasPC6OI&feature=channel" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2OzasPC6OI&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8d454hMkwI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLvoMlfpHU&feature=related
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Robotics to date, for emergency work like you are describing only exists in the world of oil well extinguishment, bomb squads or our military for now. The problem is just how fast you want the robot to get to the scene, deploy and go to work. Just watch a bomb squad for example put their robot into service... it is not a fast thing to do... And the robotics you are suggesting do in fact exist but the cost... not within reach for fire departments unless you have one hell of a grant.
But to answer your question directly Joe, go to this link and check out all the robots used by the US Military. Wow! This is a stunning pictorial that shows you several robotic applications used in the military.
Converted bomb squad type tank tread designs are slow and cumbersome to deal with with present day designs. Maybe some folks from military fire departments can shed some light on the subject. We know that there are things out there that can do some cool things. The above noted web site (http://www.robotmatrix.org/military-robot.htm) does a great job of giving us all insight as to what is out there.
CBz
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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The robot appears to be *suitable* for open space/big box type structures. Doesn't appear to be able to climb stairs and looks considerably wider than most hallways.
It appears that it can only conveyor up a victim head first, leg first the legs would splay and probably cause further/significant injuries. Also, based on the head-first principal, how would it maneuver around to approach the victim head-first?
Arrival and unload time is questionable as is deployment
time/speed. I suspect that in the time it would take to get the mother ship on scene and deploy the robot, the victim would have either been rescued by firefighters or died.
For HazMat/Biological/WMD type situation it might have some use.
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I think Tokyo has their robots for the event of a major earthquake but I would guess they would use them for special operations if called upon. I think on the rescue robot I think the operator would use the arms to lift or position the victim for the ramp. I know the fire service also have heavy equipment like excavators, loaders and bulldozers. They even have Mercedes Benz Unimog pumpers with loader buckets mounted on the front of them.
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Permalink Reply by Nenad on
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DOK-ING is a 100% privately owned Croatian company, established in the late 1991 and registered for the production of robots and special purposes equipment. The Main office, production facility and service are located at 15.000 square meters area in Zagreb, Croatia.
Today, DOK-ING is one of the international leaders in production of machines for landmine clearance, and together with its sister company DOK-ING Demining, is the largest commercial humanitarian demining company in South Eastern Europe. DOK-ING is EN ISO 9001:2000 certified, and has the capacity to perform mechanically assisted mine clearance of approximately 1.000.000 square meters per month, and the capacity to produce around 60 different types of the machines per year.
http://dok-ing.hr/
http://videoteka.novatv.hr/multimedia/test-voznih-sposobnosti-vatro...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQsUK7kurgM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zT3qBsEqBE
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