Firefighting beetle robots: nuff said!
by friver ~ April 14th, 2008. Filed under: Environment, Research, Robotics, Tech.
German scientists are working to develop autonomous, robotic firefighters that in the future could put Smokey the Bear out of a job. I’ve never wanted to see a forest fire in person before, but a chance to see these bad boys in action just might make me chance my mind!
The beetle-shaped, six-legged robots go by the name OLE, an acronym for “Offroad Loescheinheit”, which in German means “off-road extinguishing unit”.
They’ll be about Volkswagen Beetle-sized, will be guided and controlled by GPS, and will patrol forests armed with ultra heat-resistant armor, fire-extinguishing agents, tactile feelers like insects’ antennae, and infrared and heat sensors.
If you’re like and me would like to cruise around town astride one of these things, the price tag will be about $125-200K.