A Chinese-built firefighting robot was presented to Australian emergency services professionals in early September. The CITIC Heavy Industries RXR-MC80JD is a tracked robot designed to conduct reconnaissance and fight fires in extreme situations and hazardous areas. The company developed the robot after the Tianjin disaster in 2015, where explosions at a chemical depot killed 175 and injured a further 900.
RXR-MC80JD in action - Image: CITIC Heavy Industries
The robot was shown at the Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council (AFAC) conference, the largest of its kind in Australasia, which aims to bring together the latest in emergency response knowledge and research from Australia and the world.
"Currently at the conference we are receiving a lot of interest from Australian state fire services, as well as from Australian distributors of firefighting equipment," Edward Wang from Engytech, CITIC's Australian distributor, told Xinhua.
The RXR-MC80JD is not designed to replace human firefighters but to assist them by scouting out an incident and providing remote fire extinguishing capabilities.
Wang told ABC that at Tianjin many firefighters and emergency services personnel tackled the blaze at the chemical depot without full knowledge of the situation on the ground and with inadequate equipment. The robot is designed to operate in similar situations where firefighters could be at risk if they got too close to the incident.
