MyBOT-X: The First Malaysia Fire Fighting Robot
Firefighting is one of the highly hazardous works in the world. The firefighters need to extinguish fire in the hazardous environment as well as need to carry the equipment, take care of his own safety, saving fire victim and the properties. According to the statistic by International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), the death rate of US firefighters per year, per 100,000 structure fires is around 1.9 firefighters (IAFF, 2000). However, the number is increasing throughout the year to 3.0 per 100,000 structure fires (Kyle, 2007). There are many causes for the death of the firefighters during line of duty such as burns, structure falling, explosion, crushing injuries and related trauma (Rosmuller and Ale, 2008). For each year, there are many firefighters in the world lost their live in the line of duty. During the line of duty, firefighters are facing different kind of hazardous and life threatening condition such as building collapse, corrosive gas, explosion and radioactive. The firefighters in United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands are not allows their fire fighters to enter the burning building. The move is to avoid their firefighter to be trapped and lost in life.
The current equipment that used by firefighters such as helmet, gloves and flat head axle are not sufficient to protect them from danger. The firefighting techniques and technology need to be improved in order to reduce the fatalities among firefighters. Currently, there are many research and development around the world to develop the firefighting robot to assist and replace the firefighter in the line of duty. Different kind of firefighting robots have been used by Fire Services Department around the world such as Hong Kong and Singapore. The machine is able to help the firefighter to extinguish the fire, carry the necessary equipment, victim searching, surveillance without the direct involvement of firefighter in hazardous environment.
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