Summary Reader/Response Draft #4

In the article "Firefighting Robots Go Autonomous"(2021), Little highlighted to the public the advantages and disadvantages of using firefighting robots to extinguish fires. The author claimed that firefighting robots can help to reduce risk to firefighters as they can perform tasks too dangerous for humans. The author said research shows that an average of 80 firefighters die when over 3,000 Americans die in fires each year. The author also mentioned that these firefighting robots are able to enter burning buildings too hot for human survival. Little stated that these robots are in the progress of becoming autonomous. According to the author, a firefighting robot named Robotics Systems 3(RS3) has shown its capabilities and is now being used by the Los Angeles City Fire Department. It is merely a tool to provide humans with effective strategies without risking their lives. Another firefighting robot named R2-D2 was a group project designed by a group of university students. This robot proved that an autonomous robot can be built with a budget of around $40,000-$50,000 and can go as little as $10,000. However, this robot is not ready for real-world fire as there are problems such as manoeuvering in unexpected terrains. Although these firefighting robots will never be able to replace firefighters, they are able to provide assistance to firefighters with features such as the sensors and, nozzle spray as well as the robotic arm.

One way that the firefighting robots can assist firefighters is by having sensors such as heat and human sensors. They are able to perform like a firefighter in a real-world context in a long run. A firefighting robot uses its’ human sensor to detect humans in a burning building so firefighters can carry them to safety (Pransky, 2021). The robot also has eye sensors that can provide immediate eyes to firefighters providing strategies to fight the fire (Pransky, 2021). The robot can also detect fire using its heat sensor and will direct itself to face the fire and extinguish the fire (Kim, Keller & Lattimer, 2013; Park et al., 2015). For now, firefighting robots are just tools to provide firefighters with effective strategies without risking their lives (Little, 2021). However, with these advanced functions that firefighting robots can perform, it is no doubt that these robots are able to act as a support for firefighters (Bogue, 2021).

The second way that the firefighting robots can assist firefighters is with the nozzle spray. Firefighting robots were first introduced so they can be the first line of defense when a fire occurs. For instance, when a fire occurs in a building, a firefighting robot enters the building and uses its flame sensor to locate the fire and spray water at the fire (Rasheduzzaman et al., 2017). The robot is able to spray water from its nozzle for as long as 2 to 3 minutes (AlHaza et al., 2015). The RS3, a firefighting robot mentioned earlier, can spray at a speed of 2500 gallons per minute as compared to a fire hose that can only spray at a speed of 300 to 800 gallons per minute (Giuliani-Hoffman, 2020; Shapiro, 2011). This means that with the robot’s nozzle spray, it can help firefighters in extinguishing the fire.

Furthermore, the firefighting robot can assist firefighters by using its robotic arm to tow away obstacles as heavy as 3600kg blocking their way (Giuliani-Hoffman, 2020). “The robotic arm is able to pick and place the obstacle to another location for clearing the path” (Memon, Du, Abro, Shah & Bhutto, 2018). Aside from pushing away obstacles, the robot is also able to drag a fire hose into the burning building using its robotic arm (Jia et al., 2018). This shows that with its robotic arm, the robot is able to assist firefighters when an obstacle is blocking their path in a firefight.

However, like any other robot, firefighting robots also do have limitations. The battery is one of the many limitations of a firefighting robot. Firefighting robots require a large amount of power supply just for one rescue mission (Kim, Dietz & Matson, 2016). Moreover, due to the robot's size restriction, any batteries bigger than AA size batteries would not fit inside the robot (Dubel et al., 2003). Research shows that a firefighting robot has "little working time" (Krasnov & Bagaev, 2012) as it is only able to operate for 2 hours before needing to charge the batteries (Dubel et al., 2003). This proves that firefighting robots are not fully a practical solution to put out forest fires as forest fires require a long period of time to put out. However, efforts are undergoing to produce longer-lasting firefighting robots so that they can fight alongside firefighters for a longer period of time.

In conclusion, firefighting robots are efficient enough to provide assistance to firefighters especially when it comes to vulnerable situations where the lives of firefighters are at risk. They are able to provide strategic ways using their sensors to detect fires and humans in a burning building so firefighters can carry out the next step of extinguishing fires and saving human lives. With obstacles blocking its way, the robot is able to push through any obstacles in its way. By providing effective strategies without risking lives, firefighting robots are proven to contribute to the firefighters’ safety (Roldán-Gómez, González-Gironda, & Barrientos, 2021). Therefore, without a doubt, these robots are able to reduce the risk to firefighters' lives through their three features; nozzle spray, sensors and robotic arm. Although for now, they are not able to fully replace a firefighter, I strongly believe that losing a robot's life is a better option than losing a firefighter's life.

References

 

AlHaza, T., Alsadoon, A., Alhusinan, Z., Jarwalia, M., Alsaif, K. (2015). New Concept for Indoor Fire Fighting Robot. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 195, 2343-2352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.191

Bogue, R. (2021). The role of robots in firefighting. Industrial Robot, 48(2), pp. 174-178. https://doi.org/10.1108/IR-10-2020-0222

Dubel, W., Gongora, H., Bechtold, K., & Diaz, D. (2003). An autonomous firefighting robot. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA. http://dubel.org/misc/docs/dubel_firefighter_FIU_fcrar2003.pdf

Guliani-Hoffman, F. (2020). The first firefighting robot in America is here – and it has already helped fight a major fire in Los Angeles. CNN Business. https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/21/business/first-firefighting-robot-in-america-lafd-trnd

Jia, Y. Z., Li, J. S., Guo, N., Jia, Q. S., Du, B. F., & Chen, C. Y. (2018). Design and research of small crawler fire fighting robot. Chinese Automation Congress (CAC) (pp. 4120-4123). 

https://doi.org/10.1109/CAC.2018.8623538

Kim, J., Dietz, J. E., & Matson, E. T. (2016). Modeling of a multi-robot energy saving system to increase operating time of a firefighting robot. IEEE Symposium on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST) (pp. 1-6). https://doi.org/10.1109/THS.2016.7568971

Kim, J. H., Keller, B., & Lattimer, B. Y. (2013). Sensor fusion based seek-and-find fire algorithm for intelligent firefighting robot. IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (pp. 1482-1486). https://doi.org/10.1109/AIM.2013.6584304

Krasnov, E., & Bagaev, D. (2012). Conceptual analysis of fire fighting robots' control systems. IV International Conference" Problems of Cybernetics and Informatics"(PCI) (pp. 1-3). 

https://doi.org/10.1109/ICPCI.2012.6486328

Little, J. B. (2021) Firefighting Robots Go Autonomous. Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/firefighting-robots-go-autonomous/

Memon, A. W., Du, J., Abro, A. H., Shah, S. I., & Bhutto, M. A. (2018). Design and implementation of fire extinguisher robot with robotic arm. MATEC Web of Conferences, 160, pp. 06008. https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201816006008

Pransky, J. (2021). Geoff Howe, senior vice president, Howe and Howe, Inc., a subsidiary of Textron Systems; co-pioneer of robotic firefighting technologies, including Thermite™ firefighting robots. Industrial Robot, 48(2), pp. 169-173. https://doi.org/10.1108/IR-12-2020-0266

Rasheduzzaman, M., Awal, A., Gulib, A. H., & Mostafa, S. M. G. (2017). Development and Implementation of Fire Fighting Robot. Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems, 12(7), pp. 818-825. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Abdul-Awal-6/publication/360672669_Development_and_Implementation_of_Fire_Fighting_Robot/links/6284dd947cdcb914aaecca85/Development-and-Implementation-of-Fire-Fighting-Robot.pdf

Roldán-Gómez, J. J., González-Gironda, E., & Barrientos, A. (2021). A survey on robotic technologies for forest firefighting: Applying drone swarms to improve firefighters’ efficiency and safety. Applied Sciences, 11(1), pp. 363. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11010363

Shapiro, P. (2011). Engine Company Operations: Did You Know? Fire Engineering.

https://www.fireengineering.com/firefighting/did-you-know-shapiro/#gref