Firefighting (and just plain fighting) robot

This is a new humanoid robot designed to fight fires on Navy ships. According to the US Naval Research Laboratory who are building it with Virginia Tech and University of Pennsylvania, "a humanoid-type robot was chosen because it was deemed best suited to operate within the confines of an environment that was deigned for human mobility." Of course it will likely have other uses besides firefighting: The humanoid form factor "offered opportunity for other potential war fighting applications within the Navy and Marine Corps." "NRL Designs Robot for Shipboard Firefighting"

• [Lord Xenu]

  “COME AT ME BRO|”

  • [Lobster]

    Why’d they make it look like a belligerent anteater anyway?

• [ocschwar]

  You have 30 seconds to comply.

• [ciacontra]

  ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?

  • [bardfinn]

    I’m sorry, Detective Spooner. You must ask the right questions.

• [Aaron Swain]

  Maybe he can ride on that cheetah robot from Boston Dynamics.

  • [Preston Sturges]

    …..all the way to White Castle?

• [Daniel Smith]

  John Conner better watch out

  • [Ant]

    What about Sarah?

• [Ito Kagehisa]

  Shouldn’t he have a better firefighter hat?

  http://gadgets.boingboing.net/filesroot/18364-161656-0feb9248fe824bb61f2242cd64e4c533.jpg

• [cleek]

  roger, roger!

  • [jimh]

    Well, they need at least two of them so they can run into each other and fall down for the lulz!

    • [Preston Sturges]

      Only if you speed it up and play “Yakety Sax.” 

• [Brainspore]

  “a humanoid-type robot was chosen because it was deemed best suited to operate within the confines of an environment that was deigned for human mobility.”

  Suuurre that’s the reason.

  Then again, who among us wouldn’t use any excuse we could if it meant getting our own Terminator?

  • [trackofalljades]

    Yeah this was my thought exactly…I mean it’s cool and all, but there’s really no logic there.  There are all sorts of designs that would be able to move through “human” spaces but with much more agility than we have while maintaining far more payload capacity and maneuverability than this thing can possible hope to attain.

    • [bardfinn]

      Ships and subs have a variety of steep stairs, ladders, hatches, narrow gangways and pipe-cluttered clamberspaces. There really isn’t any other choice but the one nature and four hundred years of western seafaring have arrived at.

      • [Brainspore]

        I seriously doubt this robot can actually negotiate all those things well enough to be of much use in a time-sensitive emergency like a fire. If you needed to get something up a narrow ladder in a hurry, which would you have more faith in:

        1. This highly advanced humanoid robot from Japan designed specifically for ladder-climbing, or
        2. This simple but effective design built by a bunch of fire fighters in their spare time?

        That said, I’d enjoy seeing some crazy footage of this new ‘bot to prove me wrong.

        • [Phil Worthington]

           Maybe just a really good sprinker/Halon/CO2 system would have been cheaper…

        • [Brainspore]

          @google-44da4ddec3715c5077c3ddba1e15daab:disqus :
          

          Maybe just a really good sprinker/Halon/CO2 system would have been cheaper…

          Back in the ’80s we kids were still being taught that versatile, multi-purpose robots would be an essential part of any 21st century home, programmed to do everything from waking us up in the morning to vacuuming our floors. Then at some point most people realized that it would be cheaper, more practical and more reliable just to buy an alarm clock and a roomba (or more likely, stick to a manual vacuum cleaner).

• [metafactory]

  Can’t help thinking that lonely sailors can find all kinds of other uses for such a robot….

  • [Brainspore]

    Obligatory link.

    • [Preston Sturges]

      Come with me if you want to live.

      http://youtu.be/U0XMCfbXUmQ

• [John Smith]

  He’s so cute, can we name him Cho?

• [euansmith]

  “I, for one, welcome our robot masters!”

  • [bardfinn]

    Overlords. Overlords.

    • [euansmith]

      “You have 20 seconds to comply… 19… 18…”

• [Preston Sturges]

  Put Your Hands Up In The Air!

• [info]

  Yay for whoever bullshitted the government into funding a completely useless, impratical and inefficient droid project which is obviously just an excuse to advance RealDoll technology!

• [Spriggan_Prime]

  But does it have a shadow boxing function? Hugh Jackman got bills to pay yo.

• [Kimmo]

  Am I alone in seeing this as potentially the first plausible attempt at a viable stand-alone humanoid robot?

  (Japanese carer robots just don’t seem to be in the same league, this proposes to be agile.)

• [Umashankar]

  It’s nice…welcome to World.

• [O_phuk]

  Hmmm.  It seems the new Battlestar Galactica was a bit prescient with the robots and the naval ship look.  

• [Paul Renault]

  ” extinguishing agent technology (PEAT) grenades”?

  Uuuu, “Water Balloons”?