Fire Scenes and Nuclear Plants... Robots Going to Disaster Sites Instead of Humans [Juhyung Lim's Tech Talk]

New York Fire Department Deploys Two Robot Fire Dogs
Developed by Boston Dynamics under Hyundai Motor
Quadrupedal Locomotion Overcomes Stairs and Obstacles
Active in Disaster Sites Including Fires and Nuclear Accidents

Boston Dynamics' robot 'Spot' navigating rough terrain / Photo by Boston Dynamics YouTube capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] Boston Dynamics, a robot development company under Hyundai Motor Group, has sold exploration robots to the New York Fire Department (FDNY), opening new possibilities in the robotics industry. This suggests that an era may come when robots, instead of humans, operate in dangerous disaster sites filled with toxic gases, such as fire scenes or inside nuclear power plants where radiation leaks could occur at any time.

◆New York Fire Department Purchases 'Firefighting Dog' Robots from Boston Dynamics

According to the U.S. media outlet The New York Times (NYT), on the 17th (local time), the New York Fire Department (FDNY) purchased two 'Spot' robots from Boston Dynamics.

Spot is a quadruped robot that controls four flexible legs to climb stairs and overcome obstacles. FDNY plans to equip these robots with sensors to collect data and deploy them for search and rescue operations.

In fact, this is not the first time Spot has been sold to a New York city government agency. The first organization to introduce Spot was the New York Police Department, which purchased it in 2020 for deployment at incident scenes. However, due to growing public concerns about privacy invasion and excessive force using robots, the lease contract was terminated after one year.

The spot that was deployed to the crime scene together with the New York Police. Due to negative public opinion, the police authorities withdrew the spot rental contract at that time. / Photo by Fox News USA YouTube capture

The New York Fire Department expects that the negative public opinion surrounding the 'robot police dog' can be alleviated by the 'robot firefighting dog.' Unlike police dogs used for suppression and suspect apprehension, firefighting dogs are used for public safety tasks such as rescuing lives.

The firefighting dog Spot can enter collapsed buildings to assess structural safety or measure concentrations of toxic and flammable gases like carbon monoxide. By providing information before firefighters enter the scene, it helps eliminate hazards.

Michael Leo, FDNY team leader, emphasized in an interview with NYT, "Spot will actually save lives," adding, "Spot is different from the humanoid or animal-shaped machines often depicted in movies that cause harm or fear."

◆From Fire Scenes to Nuclear Plants... Will the Era of Disaster Exploration Robots Begin?

As Boston Dynamics secures contracts with government agencies, expectations are rising that new opportunities in the market for robots entering hazardous sites may emerge. If Spot proves useful in fire scenes, cases of deploying robots in natural disaster sites such as wildfires, volcanic eruptions, floods, or nuclear power plant accident areas?places difficult for humans to enter?are expected to increase.

Robots capable of entering nuclear plants could be 'game changers' in nuclear accident response and decommissioning operations. Typically, areas affected by nuclear accidents may have radioactive material leaks, posing extreme danger to humans, making response very difficult.

A representative example is the 2011 tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake, which struck the Tohoku region and led to radiation leaks from reactors 1 to 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where a radiation leak occurred following the major earthquake in Japan in 2011 / Photo by Yonhap News

After the leak, radiation levels inside the plant reportedly reached up to 530 sieverts (Sv). Humans exposed to just 1 Sv can suffer radiation sickness or nausea, and exposure to 5 Sv can be fatal within a month. This makes human access impossible.

Following the Fukushima accident, the Japanese nuclear decommissioning team developed and utilized exploration robots. From 2011 to 2017, a total of seven robots were deployed.

◆Overcoming Debris and Advancing Camera Technology Are Key

Although robots can endure disaster sites longer than humans, challenges remain before full commercialization.

The biggest challenge is designing flexible robots capable of overcoming rough terrain. Most robots developed so far are wheeled types, which have limitations in overcoming debris at disaster sites. For example, the Scorpion robot deployed at the Fukushima site in 2017 reportedly had to withdraw from search operations because it could not overcome debris.

The robot 'Scorpion' deployed by the Japanese nuclear power plant decommissioning team in 2017 / Photo by YouTube capture

Enhancing situational awareness and control performance is also a challenge. Robots deployed in disaster sites rely on small cameras to explore surroundings, resulting in limited visibility and difficulty in control unless operated by skilled pilots.

Experts predict that enhancing robot autonomy can solve this problem. Dr. Ivana Kraj??kov?-Korvajov?, leading the European Union’s disaster site exploration robot development project 'NIFTi Project,' wrote in a local media article, "The key is to enable robots to function not just as moving cameras but as members of disaster relief teams," emphasizing, "Autonomy technology must advance so that even non-experts can operate robots in disaster sites."

She added, "Although several hurdles remain before commercialization, they are not insurmountable," and "Driving technology capable of overcoming all terrains and advanced image processing technology will eventually emerge."