Japanese scientists create flying firefighting dragon robot

Japanese scientists have developed a “flying dragon” robot, created to put out fires at a distance and it sounds like something straight from a cyberpunk anime.

Fighting fires is a dangerous job. Firefighters need to go through extensive training and load themselves down with heavy equipment like breathing masks and protective suits to tackle deadly blazes that claim property and lives. Japanese researchers believe they have developed a new tool that could help fight fires from a distance, and it comes in the shape of a dragon.

The robot is called the Dragon Firefighter and has been developed by a team of researchers in Japan, who are aiming to create a tool to keep firefighting teams safer. The project has been in progress since 2016 when a team at Tohoku University led by Professor Satoshi Tadokoro began working on flying robots. The team, which ultimately involved eleven researchers and students, worked closely with Japanese firefighters to understand their needs, and how a tool such as the Dragon Firefighter could aid them.

Flying robotic fire-hose

The Dragon Firefighter is essentially a robotic fire-hose that uses eight controllable jets of water which it uses to propel itself upwards, flying at roughly two meters above the ground. The construction of the Dragon Firefighter means it can be made to change shape and thus point its water jets toward flames.

Control of the robot is done via a control unit located in a wheeled cart that follows behind the Dragon Firefighter and is connected to a supply reservoir that can hold up to 14,000 liters of water. The nozzles are capable of projecting water at a rate of 6.6 liters per second at a pressure of up to one Megapascal. The ‘head’ of the dragon contains a regular camera and a thermal imaging camera to allow it to locate fires.

The blueprints for the Dragon Firefighter have been published in a journal called Frontiers in Robotics and AI, as well as through Open Science. This means that scientists from all over the world can use the plans to build their own version of the Dragon Firefighter, and potentially make improvements to help keep firefighting crews safer.