More robotic development in the steel city, as researchers at Sheffield Hallam university are building robots that will investigate fires before firefighters.
Small explorer robots will soon be the first team to enter buildings to assess for structural soundness, dangerous airborne chemicals and locate small but smoke generating industrial fires. Ordinarily, these instances could not only impede rescue of casualties through time delay, but also endanger the rescuer.
Jacques Penders, a senior research fellow at Sheffield Hallam, is working in partnership with South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and four other European organisations, to develop two mini robotic miracles. Named the 'Guardians' and the 'Viewfinders', both robots are just 16cm in diameter.
Apparently the little beasties act somewhat like those crawler robots in Minority Report, working in teams that string together to send data back to the firefighters to let them know what's going on inside a building.
