Slashdot Mirror
Robot Firefighter To Throw Extinguisher Grenades
S810 writes "Discovery News is running an article about the U.S. Navy developing a robot capable of 'throwing extinguisher grenades.' From the article: 'SAFFiR would need finger and hand coordination to wrestle fire hoses into place or accurately throw extinguisher grenades. It similarly would need the sure-footed balance of a veteran sailor's sea legs to confidently walk the wave-tossed decks of warships. An infrared camera could allow such a robot to see through smoke-filled hallways, and perhaps it could detect the location of fires through gas sensors. The robot's battery is intended to pack enough energy for half an hour of firefighting action.'"
I want to see a warship manned with robots like that. Can you imagine how intimidating that would be, to see that in your scope? Send up the periscope, and all these robot heads swivel around to look directly at you.
"The robot's battery is intended to pack enough energy for half an hour of firefighting action." ... and then it explodes releasing toxic chemicals everywhere.
I'm curious about how the public would really react to robots like this doing dangerous jobs - be it rescue robots, firefighting robots, or even the recently hotly-discussed automated (self-driving) cars. The first time one of these robots slips up and someone dies (or is left to die), public outcry will be swift and harsh.
Nothing is more dangerous than a programmer with a screwdriver.
My wife has been throwing wet blankets on everything for years.
Yep, I bet nobody designing and building a robot to fight fires would have considered the impact of heat on the battery pack.
Because "high temperatures" wouldn't be part of the intended operating environment. At all.
Once again, an armchair Slashdotter proves more intelligent than dozens of scientists and engineers who, of course, never would have thought of this as a potential concern or operating constraint!
Of course they did, but assuming they did removes the humor. :) Not everything should be serious.
- non-lethal crowd control: tear gas grenade
- parties (or impromptu parades): confetti grenade
- stock market crashes/rises: ticker-tape grenade
- religious ceremonies: dove of peace grenade
- political conventions: t-shirt prize grenade
- insurrection (regular explodey grenade)
It's all well and good to have an automated firefighter unit, but doesn't it make more sense to simply have better systems that are more passive?
Couldn't you just have a robotic arm that's tied into the flame retardant system attached to the ceiling in important or dangerous rooms? Make it smart enough to detect fire, take aim, and spray it with a flame retardant. I'm sort of imagining the robot in the recent Iron Man films that does something similar. Seems like that could be done without the need for battery packs and ambulation, and not only would it be more ubiquitous, it'd be able to respond a hell of a lot faster than something that's traveling on foot throughout the ship, which would mean less time for the fire to cause damage.
Granted, you can't just drop the sort of thing I'm talking about into a ship, since you'd need to pipe flame retardant into a few places it isn't already, but the cost of one of these ambulatory robotic firefighters has got to be ridiculous (assuming the R&D pans out anytime soon), so I wonder at what point it's more cost effective to just do something simpler with technology that we already have.
Maybe there's a good reason, but I haven't been able to figure out why you wouldn't just use a little mortar tube for the grenade part. Like a potato gun without the pyro.
Store a compressed air tank, bypass the complicated hand and arm movements, and skip the power requirements for that part... no?
It just seems like sometimes we try too hard to make things humanoid when that might not be the best mechanical way to do a job.
Having been in the Navy for 14 years and forgetting the ship-board obstacles such as steep ladders, water-tight doors with their high step-over and the like, imagine the Navy red tape involved in:
I really cannot see this would be any help at all in a fire situation. Fires do not wait for robots. They are fast and furious. The fire drill is one of the most intense things that happens on a ship. There is no way that robot twiddle dum would get there on time with the robot operator having to maneuver it from cargo hold #3 to the engine room.... the ship could have been toast by that time.
I would think that an arm capable of throwing a grenade of some sort would be the same arm that is capable of manipulating a standard fire hose. Single tool multiple use.
Why am I thinking of the Holy Hand Grenade Monty Python quote, only slightly re-worded?
And the Robot Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Extinguisher Grenade of Antioch towards thy fiery foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall be snuffed.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
What I saw on TV was Emergency! They dealt with snakebites, circus stunts gone wrong, car wrecks, beautiful women with their toes caught in the tub faucet, heart attacks, gunshot wounds; and, of course, fires.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
There are many places where one could make use of a robot, for example near burning aircraft loaded with munitions.
Watch some of the "Forrestal fire" videos where responding seaman are blown away and incinerated to see why the Navy is interested. Likewise, you could seal a compartment with a robot inside while it continued to fight a fire which would suffocate a human crew.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
As a former volunteer firefighter if my old team gets a hold of anything that throws any kind of grenade, then no one will be able to light up a cigarette in the privacy of their own home without worrying about a fire grenade coming through the window.
On a practical level the fire robot would have to be able to squeeze through narrow spaces, over furniture, and around debris. I can't think of many household fires I was in where a robot would have been much help. It would have fallen through the floor at a kitchen fire that burned through the floorboards, we had to crawl across the couch to get to the hallway. I can't see how a robot could do that. Not only would it have to manage stairs, it would have to be able to bound up stairs dragging a hose line.
There's also deployment time. When the truck rolls up to a scene, we're ready to go in a few seconds after our boots hit the ground. I don't know how you could unpack a robot, boot it up and get it to the structure any faster than the entry and back up teams could pull the pre-connects. Might be handy in a brush fire, but again the terrain would be an issue.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
If you don't control the fire in 30 min (so humans can get there), you already lost your ship.
In fact, most of the humans with respiratory protection have a much smaller autonomy. Most kits come with 10 to 20 min, but I don't know what exactly ships buy.
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Meanwhile, the millions of LEDs covering its body will provide mood lighting for everyone in the vicinity.