From Battle Stations to Fire Stations
A squad of three fire-fighting robots has successfully completed trials with the London Fire Brigade, becoming the first robots to be deployed with the third-largest fire-fighting organization in the world. Developed by the U.K.-based military supplier QinetiQ, originally for bomb disposal in Iraq and Afghanistan, the robots are being used in fires involving acetylene-gas cylinders, which present a grave risk of explosion. With such fires, everyone within a radius of 200 meters is normally evacuated for up to 24 hours. The new robots can clear a path through debris to the cylinders, determine how hot the cylinders are, and even hose them down to keep them cool, allowing evacuation orders to be lifted in three hours or less.
Product: Talon, Black Max, and Brokk 90 robots
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build
“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”
Meet the people who use Notion to plan their whole lives
The workplace tool’s appeal extends far beyond organizing work projects. Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.
Learning to code isn’t enough
Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.
Deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has quit Google
Hinton will be speaking at EmTech Digital on Wednesday.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.