SAFFiR (via The U.S. Navy)
As robotic technology continues to expand, we see an increasingly impressive army of Artificial Intelligence-based robots gearing up to work “hand”-in-hand with humankind; like the U.S. Navy’s Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR), for example. Recently unveiled at the Naval Future Force Science & Technology EXPO, this firefighting biped is turning heads.
SAFFiR is quite impressive, as far as biped robotic capabilities go. In demonstrations last fall, the robot successfully walked upright on uneven floors, was able to identify equipment that was above recommended temperature through thermal imagine and was even able to extinguish a small fire. The demonstration was done aboard the decommissioned Naval vessel, the USS Shadwell, and if the robot ever makes it past trials, it would be working in a similar environment.
Researchers at Virginia Tech University developed the humanoid. It stands 5-feet-10-inches tall and weights 143 lbs. The bot features impressive stability and is also equipped with infrared stereovision, comprehensive light detection capabilities and a LIDAR laser that can cut through smoke. With this, the fancy biped has both an autonomous and human-controlled operating modes.
SAFFiR was commissioned to help monitor and prevent fire threats on naval vessels, but it is still a work in progress. While its stability and autonomous mode is impressive, it can only “walk” upright when connected to a tether. It is also relatively slow, compared to an emergency responder, and it is neither water- nor fireproof (which poses a BIG problem for a firefighting robot on a ship). The Navy, however, is aware of its setbacks and has plans to continue to enhance the robots capabilities, including enhanced intelligence for autonomous maintenance work, enhanced speed and greater computing power, to name a few. With this, the Navy hopes the bot will be fully functional without the help of its partner in crime, a tiny infrared quadrocopter.
DC-21 (via Carnegie Mellon University)
While the goal is for SAFFiR to roam autonomously, it got by with a little help from its friend, a drone named Damage Control Technologies for the 21st Century (DC-21). DC-21 was developed by researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute and a partner company, Sensible Machines and uses infrared imagine and depth perception cameras to detect fires in hard-to-reach spaces for SAFFiR.
Naval vessels are full of hard-to-reach areas that may only be 26-inches wide. As SAFFiR still lacks the mobility to successfully maneuver in tight spaces, DC-21 came to the rescue and communicated to the robot where it detected fire threats. The team had to act fast, as the DC-21 can only run for five minutes per battery charge, but they were successful together.
The Robotics Institute and Sensible Machines have plans to continue to enhance DC-21’s capabilities to allow for longer activity per charge. It’s back to the drawing board for research teams behind both the drone and SAFFiR technologies, but things look promising. In the not-so-distant future the U.S. Navy hopes SAFFiR will go live and help protect sailors from fire threats aboard ships. Maybe one day robots will also help fight domestic fires. We can only hope.
C
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