Both independent and remote-controlled machines can save lives
Most of the machines currently in use are remote-controlled, but researchers are now developing "Intelligent" firefighting robots that can make decisions autonomously.
Robots are tools, explains Giuseppe Loianno, a research scientist and assistant professor at New York University-and one valuable thing they can do is reduce risks to human firefighters.
With more than 350,000 American homes burning annually, and climate change contributing to 10,000 active daily wildfires worldwide, robots can offer some respite to firefighters entering blazing buildings or traversing steep mountainsides.
The students demonstrated that an autonomous firefighter can be built for around $40,000 to $50,000-even as little as $10,000-by using less-expensive components, Loianno adds.
That's 30 times cheaper than the cost of some firefighting bots currently in use.
The $300,000 RS3, American-made and funded through the fire department's foundation, has also worked with firefighters in buildings with collapsing roofs-"Places where we could potentially lose a human life," White says.
Faced with steadily worsening wildfires in the American West, the U.S. Forest Service has been dabbling with remote-controlled firefighting technologies since the early 2000s.
Using autonomous drones would increase the operational distance and provide even greater protection for firefighters, Giles says.
As recent increases in wildfire size and intensity challenge conventional firefighting methods, scientists are also experimenting with groups of remote-controlled aircraft dropping water and other fire-squelching liquids.
Other scientists are skeptical about the promise of robotic firefighting technology.