Japanese researchers have created a flying fire hose and open sourced its technology. The hose can levitate and steer, using its own water pressure as a two-part propulsion system to spray water on fires to extinguish fires while ensuring the safety of operators. The "Flying Dragon" system has two built-in four-nozzle propulsion devices, one at the end of the hose and the other about 3 meters (10 feet) behind.
Each nozzle can be viewed as similar to a water quadcopter - the valves and rotating devices on each nozzle can control the flow and thrust direction, allowing it to rise, balance and turn in the air like an ordinary drone... This can actually be seen as two drones, connected by a thick rope, dragging a heavy tail.
The Dragon has a maximum flow rate of 6.6 liters (1.5 gallons) per second and is rated for pressures up to 1 MPa (145 psi). This pressure is enough to lift the hose approximately 2 meters (6.6 feet) above the final hanging object. At this point, the hose on the prototype was only 4 meters (13.2 feet) long, back on a small control station cart where the operator stood and drove the hose.
Using a suspended camera on the "spigot" equipped with both normal and thermal imaging capabilities, the operator can see where the "dragon" is pointing to ensure it is spraying water where it is needed most. Once you aim at the flame there is no need to pull the trigger as it is already spraying water and the view of the camera is not the best as the spray of water blocks the view.
Still, it's a cute idea that tames and harnesses the chaos of a water pipe running at full force and trying to catch it.
This "flying dragon" may make a mess with water during its mission, and the water it sprays may not always reach exactly where it is needed, but on the other hand, it is a clever and fun way to fight fires in the air without putting firefighters in the flames.
However, for most jobs, a 4-meter hose is obviously not enough. 2 meters is not high enough either. This is a problem that Flying Dragon will face as it moves forward, because increasing either of these parameters will require the robot to lift and drag a heavier hose. Therefore, it requires more pressure, which may not be easy to increase without significant modifications to the fire truck it is connected to. In addition, the research team also found that when the prototype flew through the fire, its plastic parts continued to melt. This seems like what they should have thought of.
They have made the design open source, publishing a paper in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI, for anyone to build and develop.
"Perhaps with the efforts of multiple groups, the Osaka team's... rather disappointing timeline on this project could have been extended," co-corresponding author Yuichi Abe, Ph.D., assistant professor, said in a press release. "We estimate that deploying our robots in real-world firefighting scenarios will be about 10 years away."