It rightly boasts the title of the most versatile firefighting robot on the market. The COLOSSUS robot by Shark Robotics is increasingly popular among fire departments around the world. It has already been purchased by departments in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Israel, Hong Kong and Argentina to help and protect their firefighters. In this article we show Robot Colossus as seen by a Slovak firefighter.
(also) Team player
COLOSSUS can perform support roles as part of a firefighting squad, but also independently. As part of a firefighting squad, he can move with the firefighters both outdoors and indoors. In this way it can support the firefighters in a variety of ways, for example:
- Carry a load of up to 500 kg (hoses, tools, rescue equipment…) which saves the firefighters’ forces especially for longer distances (garages, tunnels, difficult terrain or long-term interventions) and leaves the firefighters with more energy for the intervention itself and for saving life and property.
- Transporting a stretcher with a person lying down, which again saves firefighters’ forces. Previously 4 firefighters were needed to carry the stretcher with the injured person, this way only one firefighter operating the robot is needed to transport the injured person
- It can pull , push, remove obstacles (up to 1000 kg weight) using a controllable front bumper or winch, which can greatly help firefighters with creating an access route especially indoors, for example in underground garages
- It can be used to illuminate the surroundings with LED lighting with a total output of 28,000 lumens, which improves the orientation of firefighters in dark or smoky environments and thus increases the safety of the intervention
However, the advantages of the robot stand out above all in the autonomous intervention. In situations where the intervention area is too dangerous, the COLOSSUS robot is the most suitable helper. With its equipment, it can carry out an initial survey and determine the real level of danger. It gathers the necessary information for the intervention commander, who then decides whether he can send firefighters to the area and what real dangers and tasks await them there. COLOSSUS can use various rotating and positional cameras, thermal imaging cameras and hazardous gas and vapour detectors for such a survey.
The robot is powered by electric motors with a battery life of up to 12 hours of deployment. This allows it to intervene even in confined spaces without the danger of contamination by exhaust fumes from the combustion engine. Combined with the dimensions of the robot (length x width x height – 170 x 78 x 76 cm), this is the ideal balance between power, weight and dimensions. Indoors, COLOSSUS passes through a door with a minimum width of 78 cm. It can climb stairs with a maximum 40° incline and overcome obstacles up to 30 cm high. With its own weight of 500 kg, the agile robot can get where even firefighters can go. We wrote more about its features here.
In the capital of France is already famous
The first to use COLOSSUS in deployment were the firefighters from Paris. They worked with manufacturer Shark Robotics to test and improve the first model back in 2018. Today, the Paris Fire Department uses up to 5 COLOSSUS robots with various accessories.
The most famous deployment of this robot in Paris was during the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in April 2019. Over 400 firefighters fought the blaze, but despite the huge deployment, it was necessary to use the robot inside the cathedral as part of the roof structure collapsed. Other parts were also in danger of collapsing. The heat, which reached up to 800°C, melted the lead parts of the structure that held up the wooden beams of the roof. Therefore, COLOSSUS was deployed to extinguish and cool the interior of the cathedral and carried out a total of 10 hours of intervention. After extinguishing the debris and cooling the cathedral area and roof from the inside with a water-powered water-pail and surveying the roof structure with cameras, it was clear which interior bays it was safe to send firefighters into and which were not.
Good equipment – the basis for success
The standard equipment of the robot is a water laffette with a maximum output of 3000 l/min, which firefighters can use to carry out an intervention. The robot can also be equipped with CBRN detectors to measure hazardous gases and vapours, which again increases the safety of the intervening firefighters with early warning. Its equipment may also include a pressurized fan or a supply of compressed air for breathing for firefighters or rescued persons. A thermal imaging camera can also be useful – it helps firefighters to navigate and locate people in a smoky environment or to find hidden fire outbreaks.
Although the COLOSSUS robot resembles a small tank, its role is to protect people’s lives and property. Its agility combined with its usefulness and ease of use therefore make it a firefighter’s helper that can play a key role in dangerous situations.
