There are unsung heroes all around, but when you need to get out of a tight spot, it would be folly to think of Superman as a candidate to bail you out. What happens when you are caught in a raging fire, trapped upstairs in your home? This is where the US Navy’s Octavia robot comes in handy – this robot is capable of vision thanks to a built-in infrared camera, and is smart enough to receive commands from team-mate via sign language or text. Octavia knows no fear, trundling through the flames in order to get trapped folks in a searing inferno, and perhaps help carve open a way using its integrated compressed air/water hose when there is seemingly no way out. The thing is, the public would then need to be educated that it is all right to be saved by a robot.
According to the U.S. Navy’s Naval Research Laboratory, “Even in peacetime, fires represent one of the greatest risks to the U.S. Naval Fleet.” I guess he will mainly see action on a ship or in a submarine instead of joining up with land firefighting forces. Some fine tuning still needs to be done to make sure that Octavia functions just fine.
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