While pipe drones can be a fantasy, robo-dragons (or robotic dragon dragons – as you like) are a reality. This strange but potentially useful robot from Japanese researchers could sneak into the windows of burning buildings, blowing everything around with the powerful water jets that he uses to get himself maneuver.
Yes, it's a real thing: Created by Tohoku University and Hachinohe College, the DragonFireFighter was presented last month at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
It works on the same principle as your hose when you turn it on and it starts beating everywhere. Essentially, your pipe acts like a simple jet: the force of the water that is projected pushes the pipe itself in the opposite direction. So what if the pipe had multiple nozzles, pointing in multiple directions, that could be opened and closed independently?
Well, you would have a dragon robot. And we do.
The DragonFireFighter has a kind of "head" covered with a nozzle and what can only be called a "neck". The water pressure of the pipe is diverted to many outlets to create a stable position that can be adjusted more or less at will.
It takes a bit of human intervention to go forward, but, as you can see, several jet planes are already pushing this direction, presumably at this point for reasons of stability and stability. rigidity. If the operators had a few more lines to give him, it seems to me that he could zoom a little further than what was allowed in the video.
For the moment, it may be more efficient to direct all this water pressure into the window, but one can certainly imagine situations where something like that would be useful.
DragonFireFighter was also exhibited at the International Exhibition on Fire and Disaster Prevention in Tokyo.
One more thing. I really have to give credit where the credit is due: I could not surpass the IEEE Spectrum title, "The robotic fire-fighting snake flies over the water jets."