A COTS-based, Highly Mobile, Telerobotic Firefighter

The military has a strong need for telerobotic fire fighting equipment because the current operating procedure for combating fires in hazardous areas is to deploy humans, but once the fire exceeds a predefined level, the people are removed from the scene and the fire is left to burn its course. There arc two problems with this procedure: first, people are put at risk since the fire fighters might not be removed from the scene in a timely manner. Second, by letting a fire run its course, there is a larger loss of materiel and an increased probability of secondary conflagrations. This project proposes to carry out the trade studies necessary as a precursor to the development of a telerobotic fire fighting vehicle. Such a vehicle will provide fire fighting personnel with greater capabilities for combating fires in hazardous areas because it will be possible to remotely deploy the vehicle, thus allowing greater operating times without the attendant risk to personnel. Such a vehicle will have many of the capabilities of manned fire fighting systems, such as on-board, multiple agent systems; external water pumping capabilities and a suite of sensors for providing vital information to the remotely located fire fighting personnel. BENEFITS: There is a strong, civilian market need for teleoperated fire fighting equipment for hazmat applications. Hazmat fires occur at chemical plants, manufacturing plants, refineries and other, common commercial sites. Due to the cost and danger associated with deploying human fire fighters into these situations, a teleoperated fire fighter is a cost efficient means for fire fighting.