Fire-fighting robots head to South Korea, could face conflicts of interest
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 8th 2009 11:13AM
posted Oct 8th 2009 11:13AM
Fire fighting robots have been put to work for little to no pay once or twice before, but it seems as if the exception is slowly becoming the rule. Just recently, a smattering of fire stations in Daegu (just south of Seoul, South Korea) enlisted the help of two robotic firefighters to jump into "the center of blazing infernos" if need be. The Fire Spy Robots are fully automated and equipped with wheels, though it should be noted that their help is currently labeled "a trial run." Both of the critters were constructed by Hoya Robot and can be maneuvered via humans watching the surroundings through an onboard camera, and while the company claims that these guys can shake off temperatures as high as 500 degrees Celsius for over an hour, there's no mention of what kind of mental meltdown it would surely have should it arrive to extinguish the work of its cousin.[Via FarEastGizmos]
While south Koreans would consider daegu to be FAR south of seoul, I guess few hours of drive is "just south" of Seoul for Americans
They're going to need bigger heatsinks than that....
Who said that playing Xbox games would not pay off? Kids get ready for the fireman of the Future. You will train online and you don't need to be in shape. All you need is awesome hand-eye coordination. Halo experience desired.
Using the word "firefighting" to describe what this does is missleading. It has no extinguishing agent, and is simply a camera. They should call it a fire reconnaissance vehicle.
As a firefighter in the Detroit area, I have to say this isn't going to amount to much. It just isn't practical. As long as it uses wheels it will be more problem than solution. The floor in most structural fires isn't something you can simply drive a RC vehicle over. Most of what makes up a ceiling will be on the floor in the first few minutes of a large fire. Combine that with everything in a room the collapses to the floor, and you have a surface that needs "legs" to navigate. Maybe tracks could do it, but I would even be skeptical of that.
This could possibly be effective in very large open industrial applications with no fire load to clutter the floor, but then it would only have limited need. This thing really should be made without the heat resistance and instead used to recon HazMat emergencies.
What if they made it fly?:P
The article's title is full of genius.
Directive 1: Put out fires.
Directive 2: Assume control of South Korea
Directive 3: Build larger robot army to destroy North Korea
Directive 4: ???
Directive 5: WORLD DOMINATION!