A firefighting beetle robot
According to Popular Science, German researchers have designed firefighting robots mimicking beetles. The OLE robotic beetle (short for 'Offroad Löscheinheit' -- which means 'off-road extinguishing apparatus' in German) has been developed at the University of Magdeburg-Stendal. The OLE would be autonomous and guided by GPS, infrared and heat sensors and could be equipped with tanks of water and powdered fire-extinguishing agents.' According to the developers, such a robot would cost between $125 and $200K. But a small army of 30 OLEs could survey a 7,000 square kilometers area. (Update: April 9, 2008) Alexander Schoekel, an alert reader, sent me a message about the payload of this firefighting robot. Look at the end of this post for more details.But read more...
You can see above one of these OLE firefighting robots in action in a forest. (Credit: Unknown)
This other picture shows how the design of the OLE has been inspired from a common beetle, the pill millipede. (Credit: Unknown)
[Note: I've found several versions of these images online. The two pictures above have been picked from "OLE the Fire-Fighting Beetle" on a site named SlipperyBrick. It's interesting to note that SlipperyBrick claims to be part of Pragmatic Labs, whose address is "Somewhere, Someplace 10090, USA." It's even more puzzling that almost all the pages on this site start with "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat." Is this a new way to do business?]
If you want to look at more professional images, please visit this photo gallery available from Popular Science.
Now, let's return to the Popular Science article to learn more about the OLE. "Only a concept now, OLE is a product of the industrial-design studio at the University of Magdeburg-Stendal, about an hour and a half west of Berlin. A robot equipped with tanks of water and powdered fire-extinguishing agents, OLE would be autonomous and guided by GPS, intelligent feelers, and infrared and heat sensors. Design professor Ulrich Wohlgemuth, along with biologist and robot-systems manager Oliver Lange, students, and members of the design firm Transluszent, collaborated on the concept, inspired by the interlinking armor of the common pill bug, Armadillidium vulgare.
[Note: I'm not including any links to the researchers mentioned above because all the ones I've found are in German, a language I don't speak.]
Let's come back to the OLE's armor. "That armor is OLE’s fireproof suit. The six legs have a similar protective purpose. 'Walking can be nice, but it is generally useless for robots,' Lange points out. 'Nature invented walking because it cannot invent the wheel from flesh and blood. In this case, though, if you have wheels, you always have contact with the forest. The concept behind OLE is that he's digging, and he's near heat. Legs don't always have contact with heat.' And from a roboticist's perspective, six legs is the perfect number, providing stability and making it easy to calculate movement points."
Here are more details about the OLE from "Wild Robots and Wildfire: Nature 2.0," a post on Think Artificial. "The OLE is biologically inspired, like so many other robots, modeled after the pill millipede -- beetles with several body segments that make them capable of rolling into a ball. Similarly, when the OLE detects danger -- such as too much heat--- it can roll into a ball. Its shell then protects the delicate electronic innards from heat ranging to 1,300 degrees celsius. When it's not balled up, it’s six legs can move it at around 10-20km per hour, depending on environmental conditions."
Popular Science adds that "a working OLE would be made from fire-resistant ceramic-fiber compounds that could withstand temperatures up to 1,850°F. Each one might cost between $125,000 and $200,000 and weigh 150 to 200 pounds. And in case pranksters wanted to steal one of them from the forest, a GPS beacon on board could be used to track it down."
This last bit of information is quite puzzling. If an OLE weighs under 200 pounds, how much powdered fire-extinguishing agents can he carry? And would it be efficient to fight forest fires? Please drop me a note if you know the answer.
(Update: April 9, 2008) Here are Alexander Schoekel's comments. "I just read the 'A firefighting beetle robot' entry in your blog and your question how much water the beetle could carry. I read the original description of the robot on the universities website (http://www.gestaltung.hs-magdeburg.de/id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=245&Itemid=61) and they mention the use of a 'Impulslvschkanone' which means 'impulse gun extinguishing system'. These devices are build by IFEX for instance (http://www.ifex3000.de/en/index.htm). The small, portable systems use approximately 1 liter of water per shot and one needs 15-40 shots to completely extinguish a burning car. I think that every beetle would carry about 50 liters. So the beetles have only a chance to fight a fire while it's still small."
Sources: Michael Dumiak, Popular Science, March 31, 2008; and various websites
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