FireBot - The World's Hottest Robot

What it does

Firefighters are injured and killed in structural fires. FireBot is the world’s first high-temperature resistant robot designed to provide life-saving situational awareness in burning buildings, searching for humans and hazards - keeping our brave heroes safe.

Your inspiration

Around eleven years ago, I heard about the tragic death of a group of five Houston Fire Department firefighters in a large structure fire on the news. Shocked, I reached out to my local fire department. From my fire chief, I learned of the vast dangers firefighters face when searching for human life in building fires. I was appalled as they described their lack of technology and motivated to use my technical skills to develop a robotic solution to increase the chance that our local firefighters returned home safely. As I interviewed other fire departments around the country, I learned that this issue was not local; it was systemic.

How it works

FireBot, is the world’s first high-temperature resistant unmanned ground vehicle built to augment firefighting operations in structure fires and hazardous environments. FireBot is an incredibly rugged and versatile obstacle climbing robot outfitted with a modular and advanced suite of sensors. FireBot safely and efficiently searches for humans and potentially-fatal hazards while reducing the time they spend searching for victims. FireBot’s award-winning technology revolutionizes firefighting by providing a reliable, cutting-edge, and accessible platform, mitigating over $6B of annual injury expenses and drastically reducing fatalities - keeping our brave heroes safe. The novelty of FireBot stems from its incredible rugged and hazard resistant platform, which is a unique patent-pending combination of high-temperature resistant insulation, advanced life and hazard detecting sensors, and a compact, low-cost, tracked, obstacle-climbing robotic ground vehicle.

Design process

We have spent over a decade in deep research and development bringing this robot to life, working with thousands of firefighters, first responders, and researchers. Over the past years, our team has developed 4 versions of FireBot, with dozens in between. FireBot V1 was a wireless wheeled robot. V2 upgraded to a tracked, rugged crawler to climb obstacles. FireBot V3 included a thermal protection system, and advanced sensors and software. Each design was iteratively improved through firefighter collaboration and feedback, and testing in structural fire deployments. FireBot V4 hits key requirements, and enables firefighters to conduct a full internal structural fire search for human life or hazardous materials. We have 89 patent-pending innovations, from novel thermal protection systems, to advanced sensor-fusion algorithms, each designed after countless failures, tests, and learnings. FireBot is semi-autonomous, bullet proof (NIJ IIIA+), fire proof, heat-proof (650C for 15 minutes), water-proof (IP64), explosion-proof, intrinsically safe, hazard-resistant (fully de-contaminationable), CBRNE resistant, and can carry 350lbs, move over 12 ft/s, climb obstacles up to 18+ inches, operate for an hour over top speed, and be fitted with modular attachments including gas/HazMat sensors.

How it is different

Firefighting technology has stagnated, relying on traditional search and enter operations and specialized, expensive handheld thermal cameras, requiring entry into burning buildings. Of the few robotic innovations (Thermite, Colossus) for fire departments, most are designed to extinguish fires from a safe distance without entering the burning structure. These large, heavy vehicles cost millions, will fail in high temperatures, and not designed for search-and-rescue. FireBot's incredible low cost (1/10th the competition), novel thermal resistance, ruggedness, and cutting-edge sensors enable firefighters for the first time to safely, remotely conduct rapid and thorough victim and hazard searches 20x faster than before. FireBot annually mitigates 20,000+ injuries, saves dozens of lives, saves fire departments $6B+ in medical expenses, reduces firefighter exposure to carcinogens, and increases the speed of rescue of victims while protecting our brave firefighters.

Future plans

We are currently deploying our FireBot V4 to 25 fire departments, public safety, and emergency response partners across the US, conducting 6 months of pilot testing, assessing real-world situational effectiveness, opportunities, and challenges. We are proud that every week our team meets with a new fire crew, and spends one day on call, responding to medical, fire, and rescue calls. We are committed to serving and protecting our brave firefighters, and honored to increase the chance that they come home safely. We hope to paradigm-shift robotics through affordable and advanced solutions for the most hazardous of environments.

Awards

FireBot is a 1st place winner at SXSW Innovation Award, SXSW Pitch Award, Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge, Carnegie Mellon Venture Comp., DisrupTexas Pitch, Texas A&M Venture Comp., and more. FireBot is a finalist at National Collegiate Innovation Challenge, TechCrunch Disrupt, Rice Business Plan Comp., and more.