OLE is supposed to monitor large areas of forest for fires. With the help of infrared sensors and biosensors, OLE will discover fire sources, immediately report them, then fight them. A biosensor is a device that detects, records and transmits information regarding a physiological change or the presence of various chemical or biological materials in the environment.
This autonomous beetle is designed to resemble a pill millipede form factor. A pill millipede is an insect in the centipede family. You remember those things. You found them in the dirt when you were digging in your grandmother’s garden. Just like a centipede, when OLE is in trouble, it will retract its legs and roll into a ball. Its heat-resistant shell is made of a ceramic-fiber compound that can withstand up to 1,300? centigrade, which is about 2,372? Fahrenheit. The average fire can grow to be around 900?, so OLE will be protected from the most severe types of fires.
OLE comes equipped with two mechanical feelers to help it maneuver safely across uneven, or difficult terrain, and depending on the land, can move anywhere between 10 and 20 kilometers per hour.
To actually fight the fire, the beetle uses an impulse appliance. What does that mean exactly? Once the beetle detects the fire, it will automatically deploy what acts like Bromochlorodifluoromethane – or the stuff you find in fire extinguishers. In order to cover an area the size of the Black Forest (4,350 miles) you would need 30 of these buggers! No pun intended.
I personally think it would be great to have unmanned drones in the firefighting field. If the U.S. Army is developing autonomous drones for reconnaissance missions and direct combat situations to prevent any unnecessary losses, it seems only natural to take the idea and use it in other life threatening fields such as firefighting and law enforcement, as long as we can keep a good handle on it. I’d hate for these robots to get out of hand — we’ve all seen the Terminator movies, right?
Jonathan Masker is a wireless solution expert and a self-proclaimed gadget guru.