Firefighting robots powered by artificial intelligence have completed a successful early trial in Australia, showing they can navigate obstacles and work together to extinguish fires without placing human crews in danger.
The project was led by Cyborg Dynamics Engineering in collaboration with Griffith University and funded by the Queensland Defence Science Alliance.
The team demonstrated the system in simulated and hybrid simulation-physical tests using an unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV, alongside up to four virtual robot teammates.
sciolisticism on
Finally a use case that isn’t just shitty managers being shitty.
If this works though, lotta convicts in California are going to lose out on a jobs program.
QuantumInfinty on
This is a nice application of ai, wonder how far stuff like this will go
btoned on
Please tell me what the need to AI here is or if it even present?
Remote controlled robots to extinguish fire. You’re telling me this hasnt been in used until NOW?
Are we seriously just adding AI to any robotic or automation article at this point?
This reminds of how people were baffled with shit like Zoom during covid when Skype existed for over a decade.
DHFranklin on
Though it’s only been tested twice, that is still encouraging. What is missing is hybrid teams of these. Static drones flying as close as possible without melting, going to and fro to swap out batteries. Using that sensor data to check for life signs and things, then using lidar and photogrammetry to watch out for collapse.
Hell they could all get a massive fire blanket like a trawler net and swarm it while the ground rovers hit it with fire extinguishers.
mistsoalar on
I think that “nearly 100% success rate” needs to be expanded.
>School of Information and Communication Technology, said the results demonstrated a 99.67 per cent success rate in navigating and extinguishing two fires, suggesting its strong potential for real-world deployment.
They have a video of one of the successful scenarios. That’s one UGV irl with others in sim space collaborating to fight against essentially a bonfire in the sim. I wonder how it’ll behave in a real fire situation when a lot of components can go wrong. Also, the video didn’t show Firefighting Foams or water irl. I hope this one can carry & deploy at least a can of commercial fire extinguisher.
Also:
>”These units are remotely controlled by a human, a bit like an RC car. ”
I’m not sure how much of remote human input is required.
sten45 on
Have any of you ever worked with tracked vehicles? Who’s doing the PMs on these robots? How are they going to get 4 miles off trail to the lighting start? What do these robots run on? I assure you they dont run on water, candy bars and shitty roast beef sandwiches. AI robot firefighters is one of the stupidest applications the tech bros are trying to sell
SchreiberBike on
>The system achieved a 99.67 percent success rate in navigating and putting out two fires.
After two fires it had either a 0%, 50% or 100% success rate. Where does 99.67% come from.
Also this works in one use case, but Australia has a lot of brush fires, so maybe that’s sufficient.
sturgill_homme on
So like the Ring cameras to find lost dogs but with AI drones? Awesome.
No-Poetry-2717 on
I mean… maybe these won’t need ridiculous overtime and pensions? Sounds good
AWeakMindedMan on
Now AI IS coming for firefighters jobs?!?? WHEN will AI stop taking our jobs!!
11 Comments
Firefighting robots powered by artificial intelligence have completed a successful early trial in Australia, showing they can navigate obstacles and work together to extinguish fires without placing human crews in danger.
The project was led by Cyborg Dynamics Engineering in collaboration with Griffith University and funded by the Queensland Defence Science Alliance.
The team demonstrated the system in simulated and hybrid simulation-physical tests using an unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV, alongside up to four virtual robot teammates.
Finally a use case that isn’t just shitty managers being shitty.
If this works though, lotta convicts in California are going to lose out on a jobs program.
This is a nice application of ai, wonder how far stuff like this will go
Please tell me what the need to AI here is or if it even present?
Remote controlled robots to extinguish fire. You’re telling me this hasnt been in used until NOW?
Are we seriously just adding AI to any robotic or automation article at this point?
This reminds of how people were baffled with shit like Zoom during covid when Skype existed for over a decade.
Though it’s only been tested twice, that is still encouraging. What is missing is hybrid teams of these. Static drones flying as close as possible without melting, going to and fro to swap out batteries. Using that sensor data to check for life signs and things, then using lidar and photogrammetry to watch out for collapse.
Hell they could all get a massive fire blanket like a trawler net and swarm it while the ground rovers hit it with fire extinguishers.
I think that “nearly 100% success rate” needs to be expanded.
>[https://news.griffith.edu.au/2026/02/16/ai-powered-robot-vehicles-team-up-to-fight-fires/](https://news.griffith.edu.au/2026/02/16/ai-powered-robot-vehicles-team-up-to-fight-fires/)
>School of Information and Communication Technology, said the results demonstrated a 99.67 per cent success rate in navigating and extinguishing two fires, suggesting its strong potential for real-world deployment.
They have a video of one of the successful scenarios. That’s one UGV irl with others in sim space collaborating to fight against essentially a bonfire in the sim. I wonder how it’ll behave in a real fire situation when a lot of components can go wrong. Also, the video didn’t show Firefighting Foams or water irl. I hope this one can carry & deploy at least a can of commercial fire extinguisher.
Also:
>”These units are remotely controlled by a human, a bit like an RC car. ”
I’m not sure how much of remote human input is required.
Have any of you ever worked with tracked vehicles? Who’s doing the PMs on these robots? How are they going to get 4 miles off trail to the lighting start? What do these robots run on? I assure you they dont run on water, candy bars and shitty roast beef sandwiches. AI robot firefighters is one of the stupidest applications the tech bros are trying to sell
>The system achieved a 99.67 percent success rate in navigating and putting out two fires.
After two fires it had either a 0%, 50% or 100% success rate. Where does 99.67% come from.
Also this works in one use case, but Australia has a lot of brush fires, so maybe that’s sufficient.
So like the Ring cameras to find lost dogs but with AI drones? Awesome.
I mean… maybe these won’t need ridiculous overtime and pensions? Sounds good
Now AI IS coming for firefighters jobs?!?? WHEN will AI stop taking our jobs!!
/s