AFG
Autonomous Fire Fighter for Husqvarna, 2009
Wildfire fighting is still one of the most physically challenging and labour intense task up to today
Mankind has lots of shortcomings in this hard, dirty, exhausting and dangerous job. Autonomous machines can operate faster and more efficiently to fight against wildfires and help prevent fires beforehand.
AFG
AFG, which stands for autonomous fire guard, is a fully autonomous robot that can house different tool modules for different tasks of forest fire suppression operations by the help of an universal chassis.
AFG-M 1 module is designed to be used in the last phase of a forest fire suppression operation which is called mopping-up. As a last phase of a forest fire suppression operation, “AFG-M 1” investigates the hot spots in the area and cools down these hot spots to finalize the suppression operation.
AFG’s compact size allows it to be transported by trucks or trailers easily
Mopping-Up
During mopping-up; stumps of trees need to be grubbed and cooled down properly. Hot and still smouldering ground vegetation needs to be turned over and cooled down by applying water. Also hot and still smouldering trees, snags and embers around need to be investigated and extinguished completely.
AFG-M 1’s head tool includes grinder teeth and fog nozzles to be able to turn over the hot material and cool down them. Grinder teeth can be also used to grind the hot surface material and fell trees when needed.
AFG is designed to handle the roughest terrain with the help of pendulum arm suspensions. This provides both create flexibility as well as stability to the vehicle. Furthermore the wheels can expand to widen their footprint to increase the stability and also to protect the forest ground. Bottom of AFG acts as a big heatsink to protect the batteries from the hotspots.
more details are being added…