Robot Reviews

After their bomb-detonating stints in Iraq and Afghanistan, ex-army robots are again doing their duty to the tax-paying public, this time as crewmembers of London's firefighting brigade.

 These bots however, don't answer to calls of cats stuck up in trees. Their primary duty is to protect firefighters and minimize public transportation disruption in cases where there is suspicion of acetylene gas involved in the fire.

Acetylene, when present in a fire, not only poses a very real threat to firefighter's lives but also causes major disturbance to the public. That's because long after the fire is extinguished, the gas cylinders are still in danger of exploding, hence affected areas need to be cordoned off for another 24 hours, affecting transport routes and displacing residents.

While they were officialy unveiled this past Tuesday, July 28th, these firefighting robots which were developed by the defense technology company QinetiQ, have actually been undergoing trial testing for some time now under a two-year deal jointly funded by the London Fire Brigade, and the transport groups Transport for London, Network Rail, and the Highways Agency. 

Your friendly neighborhood firefighting team is actually composed of three bots which can all be remotely controlled. 

Meet Talon, small, easily maneuverable, and equipped with videos and thermal imaging to detect the presence of a hot cylinder of acetylene. Then there's Black Max, also video-equipped, and totes a high pressure hose to douse the gas tank and let it cool down. The last team member is Brokk 90, a heavy duty mini-digger that picks up the cylinder, removes debris and helps claw the team in into less accessible areas where the gas tanks may be located. 

Residents of other counties won't get to see them aboard the big red truck just yet as these robots will initially be helping out only in the Greater London area.