Third Year Design Project.

[Mat Bridges]

For one of my third year design projects ive decided to go "blue sky" (blue sky meaning- looking to the future) and design a un-manned reconnaissance drone that would be sent into a house/building/warehouse fire and asses the situation, and contents etc before anyone is sent into the building.

It would be extremely usefull to me to have your opinions on such a device and whether you think it would be a benefit to the fire service in the distant future.

Many thanks,

Matthew Bridges

[Guest]

Mmmmmm

[Guest]

Nice idea shame about the Lego set.

[Mat Bridges]

Whats the lego set got to do with it?!!
Mate, if you havent got anything constructive to say, keep ur opinions to your self.

[Guest]

Nothing better than hands on. Robots are ok if you have time but quite often the quicker you can get to work the smaller the job will be. I can only see a use for them in chemical or explosive incidents, not day to day firefighting. Also when most chiefs are struggeling to provide basic equipment I don't think one will buy a robot. :?:

[Guest]

OK, here's something constructive.  It's a stupid idea.

[Guest]

Don't be put off by those people who still have their heads in smoke hoods and bellows sets. Try visiting the Japaneses Fire Department web site and see what they have available.

I can see lots of uses for this type of unit, I mean what did the army think about the robot used in Northern Ireland when it was first introduced. I used something similar in the Falkland Islands for burning out mines and it saved having to put personnel into a hazardous area.

Some of the uses may be:

Hazmat situational evaluation
Terrorist and suspect package response
Unsafe building fire fighting

Keep looking forward!!!!!

[Guest]

Try looking at recent issues of Technical Rescue magazine they had an article on this very subject

[Guest]

Think about the most basic principles of this idea.
Power source; not a problem.
Radio control; possible problem due to dead areas caused by structure of building but more importantly cross channel interference by other radio equipment such as hand held comms(there are only a limited number of frequencies licenced for emergency service use)
Imaging; major problem. i don't know your background but current imaging technology in the Fire Service is still not perfect for example in a smoke logged building using a current TIC what you see through the lens still needs to be interpteted by the operator particularly when walls are the same shade of grey as the cielings and floors. A human with their feet on the floor can easily distinguish which shades of grey are horizontal and vertical but you will have to address this problem for a drone operator on the outside who might mistake a floor for a wall or indeed up for down.
The idea sounds completely ridiculous but what the hell. People used to be hung for thinking the world was round.
Good luck.

[wee brian]

I saw an advert for one of these things once. I think it was being put about by DERA (the MOD research people) who are a private company now.

It was similar to the bomb disposal type robots that the army uses I think they were aiming it at wharehouse fires.