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.
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!
Compare to the auto-belay devices on many climbing walls. A couple of falls, the second fatal, got a worldwide recall of the most popular brand. They've been redesigned to get rid of the fault and they're back, but they will wear out with age. But even before the recall, they were (according to climber friends) statistically more reliable than a human holding a rope.
So basically, they recalled a safety device that was more safe than a human, and replaced it with humans holding ropes, all in the name of safety.
In short: you're quite right.
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- 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)
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.
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.
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