February 5, 2015 at 15:45[Video] Ship-based firefighter SAFFiR
At the Naval Future Force Science & Technology EXPO on February 4, the SAFFir project team reported on a series of successful experiments in which they developed a prototype humanoid robot to extinguish ship fires. Testing took place on a former landing ship of the US Navy Shadwell, decommissioned from the fleet in 1970 and is in the reserve of national defense.
SAFFir (Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot) is a remotely controlled android developed by order of the US Naval Research Administration. The height of SAFFir is 178 cm, weight - 65 kg. It is designed to extinguish fires on ships with a fire hose in real conditions, such as an uneven floor or smoke in a room. The choice of a humanoid robot was made because of the difficult conditions in which he would have to move on deck and inside the ship: narrow corridors, hatches, stairs make it impossible to use a wheeled robot that carries a supply of water or fire extinguishers.
Using SAFFir to extinguish a test fire
SAFFir is based on another development - the CHARLI-L1 robotcreated at Virginia Tech (a division of the University of Pennsylvania). This robot had autonomy, working for 30 minutes on electric batteries, was able to interact with fire extinguishing systems on a ship and throw specially designed PEAT devices (Propelled Extinguishing Agent Technology) into small fires - small grenades that spray chemical-suppressing substances around them. CHARLI-L1 was equipped with navigation aids for movement in narrow spaces of the ship, motion sensors and infrared cameras.
CHARLI-L1
Now SAFFir has quite modest capabilities compared to its predecessor. A pair of infrared cameras and a lidar detector provide “vision” through smoke to a robot; it receives commands for performing actions from the operator’s console. The plans of the engineering team to ensure the complete autonomy of SAFFir, completely eliminating the crew from extinguishing the fire.
SAFFir (Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot) is a remotely controlled android developed by order of the US Naval Research Administration. The height of SAFFir is 178 cm, weight - 65 kg. It is designed to extinguish fires on ships with a fire hose in real conditions, such as an uneven floor or smoke in a room. The choice of a humanoid robot was made because of the difficult conditions in which he would have to move on deck and inside the ship: narrow corridors, hatches, stairs make it impossible to use a wheeled robot that carries a supply of water or fire extinguishers.
Using SAFFir to extinguish a test fire
SAFFir is based on another development - the CHARLI-L1 robotcreated at Virginia Tech (a division of the University of Pennsylvania). This robot had autonomy, working for 30 minutes on electric batteries, was able to interact with fire extinguishing systems on a ship and throw specially designed PEAT devices (Propelled Extinguishing Agent Technology) into small fires - small grenades that spray chemical-suppressing substances around them. CHARLI-L1 was equipped with navigation aids for movement in narrow spaces of the ship, motion sensors and infrared cameras.
CHARLI-L1
Now SAFFir has quite modest capabilities compared to its predecessor. A pair of infrared cameras and a lidar detector provide “vision” through smoke to a robot; it receives commands for performing actions from the operator’s console. The plans of the engineering team to ensure the complete autonomy of SAFFir, completely eliminating the crew from extinguishing the fire.