Texas A&M, which doubles as the state of Texas agency for emergency response, recently completed a study on wildland robotic firefighting with Lockheed Martin and revealed the results yesterday at the show.
Robin Murphy, of the university's Department of Computer Sciences and Engineering and founder in the field of rescue robotics, said the three main functions that firefighting robots need to perform are hauling supplies in all types of terrain, performing reconnoiter missions and suppressing the fire, primarily through labor-intensive activities like fuel removal and trench digging.
Although UAVs have been used to reconnoiter fires, Murphy said that UGVs would be more useful.
"[UAVs] can't see in the canopy," she said. "They don't usually fly at night, and there's poor coordination."
The study has determined that ground vehicles similar to Lockheed's Squad Mission Support System would be most ideal for wildfire, with the exception that firefighters want an optionally manned vehicle, said Murphy.
"I thoroughly, sincerely think wildland firefighting would benefit from a medium-sized UGV," she said.
While there haven't been any Texas A&M UGV firefighting demostrations yet, Murphy said they are in the process of arranging a prescribed burn.
Source: Flight Daily News
