Hyundai Rotem announced on the 31st that it unveiled its unmanned firefighting robot for the first time at the ‘2024 Asia Machinery and Manufacturing Industry Exhibition’ held at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province until the 2nd of next month.

The unmanned firefighting robot that Hyundai Rotem is jointly developing with the National Fire Agency is an electric vehicle equipped with fire suppression equipment based on Hyundai Rotem's multi-purpose unmanned vehicle ‘HR-Sherpa’ as a platform.

The unmanned firefighting robot, operated by wireless remote control, detects ignition points through a thermal imaging sensor-based visibility improvement camera attached to the vehicle and then fires firefighting water to extinguish the fire. For this purpose, a 65 mm diameter fire hose was installed, and an insulating cover and self-spraying system were installed to protect the unmanned fire robot from the high heat at the fire site.

Hyundai Rotem expects that it will be able to more quickly approach and respond to fires by deploying unmanned firefighting robots to various fire sites, such as building basements that are difficult for firefighters to access directly due to heat and smoke.

Hyundai Rotem's HR-Sherpa, which is the basis for the unmanned firefighting robot, is an electric vehicle that can be operated remotely and unmanned, so it can perform missions on behalf of people. It has the expandability to be equipped with various equipment depending on the purpose, so it can be used for military as well as civilian purposes.

Hyundai Rotem plans to produce an unmanned firefighting robot prototype by this year and then conduct a performance demonstration with the National Fire Agency next year. After improving performance, four unmanned firefighting robots will be supplied to the National Fire Agency.

At this exhibition, Hyundai Rotem introduced cutting-edge logistics automation technology for building smart factories, the latest press technology required at manufacturing sites, hydrogen value chain, and high-speed train core technologies.

A Hyundai Rotem official said, “We are presenting the current status and future vision of technological innovation across the entire business, including unmanned firefighting robots for fire safety,” and added, “We are contributing to the future society by continuously conducting research and development on advanced technologies such as unmanned and electric technology.” “I will do it,” he said.