When a fire breaks out, every second counts – and for firefighters, stepping into a burning building can mean facing intense heat, smoke and the unknown.
But a group of university students and recent graduates in Texas is developing a robot that might one day help firefighters see danger before they ever cross the threshold.
FireBot is being built by Paradigm Robotics, an early-stage startup founded by University of Texas engineering graduate Siddhart Thakur. Its purpose: to go where firefighters can’t — into the heart of a blaze and send back vital information.
“The story of FireBot started almost 13 years ago,” Thakur told CNN, “when a large structure fire unfortunately killed five firefighters in Houston, Texas. Knowing two of them, I became motivated and inspired to start working and building on robots to help protect firefighters from going into structure fires.”
At just 10 years old, he began sketching designs. By 13, he was testing makeshift prototypes built from a backyard grill. Today, FireBot is a 300-pound, four-foot-long robot built from stainless steel, tungsten and titanium — designed to survive extreme temperatures, corrosive chemicals and even roof collapses.
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