Paris firefighters faced a mammoth task in trying to contain the Notre Dame fire which burned down the roof and destroyed the spire. The fire did destroy invaluable parts of the cathedral but the firefighters were able to save many of the treasures inside. They also prevented the fire from damaging the entire structure. For this purpose, they deployed a 1,100 pound remote controlled robot called Colossus.
Colossus has been manufactured by Shark Robotics, a French technology company. It helped out firefighters by moving in to fight the blaze. It would have been very dangerous for the firefighters to go in with heavy equipment while the roof was burning and falling down around them. Colossus has been built to withstand extreme conditions while operating a hose and carrying heavy tools. It can be operated from almost 1,000 feet away and since it has a modular design, it can be configured depending on the job’s requirement.
The robot itself is 5.25 feet long, 2.5 feet wide and just under 2.5 feet tall. It happens to be fire resistant, waterproof, and runs on two electric motors that are backed up by six lithium-ion batteries. The robot can only reach speeds of 2.2 miles per hour but it’s quite capable of climbing over obstacles and can carry more than 1,200 pounds of payload.
Remarkably, there was no loss of life in this incident, even as around 400 firefighters took part in the operation to control the blaze alongside many other emergency workers.