Episode 253: Firebot: A Game-Changer in Hazmat Situations with Siddharth Thakur

Episode notes

Check out this fire-resistant robot that helps firefighters in search and rescue operations:

Hello Smart Firefighting Community!

Welcome to another episode of covering real world innovations via interviews with fire service and technology industry experts that empower YOU to develop your very own Smart Firefighting strategy!

In this episode:

How Firebot works

How does Firebot enhance (not replace) firefighters?

The future roadmap for Firebot and its potential commercial release

Hear from Siddharth Thakur - the Founder & CEO of Paradigm Robotics .

Siddharth introduces Firebot, a groundbreaking robot designed to assist firefighters in search and rescue operations. Firebot is fire-resistant, capable of withstanding high temperatures, and equipped with cutting-edge technology, including thermal cameras, optical and radar sensors, and a five-gas detector for hazardous materials (hazmat) situations.

Firebot is intended to enhance the capabilities of firefighters, allowing them to deploy the robot in situations too dangerous or impractical for humans to enter. Siddharth emphasizes that Firebot is meant to support, not replace, human firefighters. Paradigm Robotics is currently testing and refining Firebot, with plans to move towards a commercial release in the future.

So take a listen to hear what he has to share!

Head to www.smartfirefighting.com to discover how SFF accelerates innovation for emergency responders, to find out when our next event is, or review our curated resources!

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Chapters

1. 0:00 Intro to the FRI miniseries
2. 0:36 Siddharth Thakur joins at FRI
3. 1:12 Why Firebot exists
4. 2:02 Departments testing Firebot
5. 2:16 The mini and maxi versions
6. 2:55 The heat profile and the first thesis
7. 3:56 Where development stands now
8. 4:26 The most practical use case today
9. 5:30 Will firefighters trust a robot?
10. 5:59 Enhancing, not replacing, firefighters
11. 7:21 The next 6 to 12 months
12. 7:44 How to connect
13. 7:55 Wrap

Questions answered in this episode

What inspired Siddharth Thakur to create Firebot?

Eleven years ago, the Houston Fire Department had their largest structural fire that killed five Houston firefighters in a hotel fire when the roof collapsed. Siddharth Thakur was close to some of the firefighters, and the incident affected his family, so he set out to build solutions to help keep firefighters safe.

Hear it at 1:17

How many fire departments are currently using Firebot?

Siddharth Thakur says 28 fire departments around the country are working with Paradigm Robotics.

Hear it at 2:04

What heat levels can Firebot withstand?

Siddharth Thakur says Firebot can go up to 1,200 Fahrenheit for 15 minutes and at lower temperatures like 500 Fahrenheit for over an hour, making it what he calls the world's hottest robot.

Hear it at 3:05

What are the main use cases for Firebot?

The robot is used for search and rescue, hazmat situations including toxic spills and unknown objects, and rapid incident support. It can search an average room in 30 seconds using thermal cameras, optical sensors and radar that can penetrate smoke and see through walls, and has a built-in five gas detector.

Hear it at 4:26

Is Firebot meant to replace firefighters?

Siddharth Thakur says Firebot is designed to enhance, not replace, firefighters. It supports firefighters by increasing radio range, helping find downed firefighters faster, or going into situations that are too hot, toxic, dangerous, wet or small for firefighters to enter safely.

Hear it at 5:59

Transcript

Machine transcript of the published audio. Names may be misspelled and some sections are missing.

Ep 253 transcript

Firebot: A Game-Changer in Hazmat Situations with Siddharth Thakur

Speakers: Kevin Sofen, Siddharth Thakur

Source: Whisper medium.en machine transcription of the published Podbean audio (no original transcript found in Drive), lightly cleaned. Speakers were separated by voice clustering and then checked and assigned by hand at every speaker change. Gaps where the model returned no usable text are marked [inaudible m:ss].

[0:00] Kevin Sofen: Welcome to the Smart Firefighting Podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Sofen. In this FRI miniseries, we're taking a closer look at how technology and smart solutions are shaping the future of the fire service. From the role of artificial intelligence and assessments to cutting edge tools like wildfire drones, each episode dives into how these advancements are improving firefighter safety, efficiency, and real-time decision-making. Stay tuned for some great conversations with the innovators pushing our fire service forward. Enjoy. We're on the show floor and I'm sitting alongside Siddharth Thakur with Paradigm Robotics. Sid, how you doing?

[0:41] Siddharth Thakur: Great, thanks for having me, Kevin.

[0:43] Kevin Sofen: Hey, glad to have you here. So this is your first FRI, right?

[0:45] Siddharth Thakur: Yeah, absolutely. It's been a good time.

[0:47] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, tell me, who have you met with? Who is here at FRI?

[0:50] Siddharth Thakur: Yeah, I've been meeting with fire chiefs, battalion chiefs, lieutenant captains, firefighters, really everyone. It's been a good time from all over, actually. I expected a lot Texas-based, but actually met people from California to Maine, so it's been a good spread. A lot of combination, volunteer, and career fire department, so right now everything.

[1:05] Kevin Sofen: And so we met on LinkedIn and then ultimately this was a good opportunity for us to meet IRL.

[1:10] Siddharth Thakur: Absolutely.

[1:10] Kevin Sofen: I'm looking over at your technology solution and you know in the name robot.

[1:14] Siddharth Thakur: Yep.

[1:14] Kevin Sofen: Who, what, when, where, why, Paradigm Robotics. Give me the scoop.

[1:17] Siddharth Thakur: Eleven years ago Houston Fire Department had their largest structural fire and it killed five Houston firefighters. There's a hotel fire and the roof collapsed and I was close to some of the guys and so this affected my family and me. And from there, I sort of was figuring out a way to build solutions to help keep firefighters safe. Reached out to my fire chief, sat down with him, asked him a bunch of questions, and he told me structure fires and search and rescue were really tough to deal with. And then from there, I just started building robots to help search and rescue and structure fires. From there, I built four versions of the robot. Now Firebot is in its fourth version. We helped search and rescue, RIC, Hazmat. It's one of the most rugged and hazard resistant robots out there today, and it's a rugged ground robot. And so now we work with 28 fire departments around the country, met a bunch more yesterday and today, and so we're looking to add to that list.

[2:02] Kevin Sofen: 28 fire departments?

[2:04] Siddharth Thakur: Yep, that's correct.

[2:05] Kevin Sofen: That's awesome. Thank you. And is that the kind of, I'm looking over here and I see a kind of a, I would say a medium, is that kind of the form factor that they're using or what, tell me more about what those departments are using.

[2:16] Siddharth Thakur: So we have a small one, a smaller one we call a mini version, that's the maxi version, the bigger one. The bigger one's used for a lot of industrial, commercial warehouses, really fast search, data collection, situational awareness, really it's very ideal age conditions. And then the smaller one is used for residential, more quick attack, hasty searches. We work with a lot of police departments, so bomb squads do a lot of investigation that way. So fire departments use a combination of both. Really we're testing structure fires, rubble piles, hazmat, RIC, search and rescue, and just seeing how can the robot used effectively in different use cases. And then from there, we're looking to make a better version that meets the needs of each fire department from there.

[2:55] Kevin Sofen: And you had mentioned something when we were talking the other day about the heat profile, and that being a potential, just one of the unique nuances. Tell me more about the heat profile and why that's relevant.

[3:05] Siddharth Thakur: That's a good question. So the first thesis of the Firebot was that it had to be fire resistant. So we got specs from different firefighters and we actually ended up making the world's hottest robot. We're trying to get the Guinness World Record right now, but our robot can go up to 1,200 Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. And at lower temperatures, like 500 Fahrenheit with a bunker gear rating for over an hour. And so that's super important because that means that if you're using it for primary search, you can leave it in and come back to get it later and it'll be just fine. And so it's designed to go into the worst conditions possible. Fire, it's waterproof, dust-proof, hazard-proof, corrosion-resistant, it's also C1D1 intrinsically safe. So it's designed to be in the worst conditions. And it's super important because that means that as a firefighter, you can depend on it. If your life's depending on it or a victim's life is depending on it, you don't want it to fail. So we've tested it extensively. There's a lot of cool technology inside that makes that happen, and we're going to keep testing it.

[3:56] Kevin Sofen: And as far as where you're at from a development standpoint now, you mentioned aspects of making it better in testing. Tell me more about kind of like the operational use case of this. I mean, you mentioned kind of for being able to go into a structure fire and some of the challenges there, and whether it's, you know, you see some robots that are carrying a hose line, some that are kind of used for creating a little scan, some that are used for moving objects, a range of different things, but what would you say are some of the most practical, relevant tangible use cases of how a fire department would use the Paradigm Robotics platform.

[4:26] Siddharth Thakur: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think the most practical, tangible use case right now is first, for example, search and rescue. At primary search, Firebot can take your average room and search it in 30 seconds flat, when it takes maybe five to 10 minutes for a firefighter to search today. It's really quick, it can move at 12 feet per second. That's faster than a jogging speed, so it's really fast, very nimble too. And so with thermal cameras, optical and radar, so it can penetrate through smoke, see-through walls and everything. And so the first tangible use case is you can help search a warehouse very quickly. We're sitting in maybe like a one million, 1.5 million square foot room right now. Firebot could probably do it in 10 to 20 minutes when it might take two to three hours for firefighters to do it and typically. Hazmat is a big one, you know, toxic spill, leak chemical, unknown foreign object. Firebot can go and inspect the label, see what markings are on it or detect the air and the gas. There's a five gas inbuilt. You can plug in your own so you can see what's going on, what's happening, get that situational awareness before you decide to send in people. Or, you know, then you can actually mitigate it. We're working on adding a robot arm on top of it to actually take samples or turn it off or turn it on or things like that.

[5:30] Kevin Sofen: One challenge with public safety is oftentimes there's any new tech has maybe looked at a potential replacement of a firefighter or replacement of a job. And I don't think that this is by any means looking at replacement, it's looking at complimenting and enhancing. But what would you say to first responders that are maybe reluctant to adopt this kind of technology or look at this kind of tech as something that is, you know, a threat to their job or something that may not support, you know, that may be a distraction or something that could come and take their job or something like that.

[5:59] Siddharth Thakur: It's a good question. And we've gotten that from a lot of firefighters. I've worked with over 3,000 firefighters to date, over probably 75 fire departments around the country, just listening and learning. And that was one of the big concerns we got. And the whole idea behind Firebot is not designed to replace but to enhance. Firebot supports you at every turn. So whether you want to increase radio communications, Send Firebot in as a wireless mesh network to increase your radio range. Or whether you want to find a downed firefighter, use it to support your RIC team to look faster, look quicker. Or if you want to replace a TED device, those TED devices are always noisy and loud, Firebot can be an active one that you can turn on and off and control and move around. So Firebot supports you, especially for a lot of departments that have staffing shortages or personnel shortages, it enhances the capability of a firefighter. We don't take away from current firefighting today. You know, if you think about two in, two out, You can send a firefighter with your Firebot designed to work complimentary with the firefighter to work in tandem. And so one of the key things we've done as well is it can go in a lot of situations where you simply cannot go into, right? Too hot for your suit, too toxic, too dangerous, too wet. You know what I mean? Then you can send in the robot or too small for you. And so really what we're trying to do is say first responders are great. We're not trying to take away any jobs. We work closely with unions all over the US. And we recognize that Firebot could be a tool at your tool belt, the same way you have a TIC, you know, you have your axe, you have a Firebot, just a slightly more advanced tool.

[7:21] Kevin Sofen: Love it, man. And what would you say? It's, I guess, yeah, it's August 2024. What's the next six, 12-month roadmap look like for you?

[7:29] Siddharth Thakur: Good question. And so right now we're testing V4 for the next six to eight months. We're getting feedback, validation from firefighters, we're going to build a better one called our Gen 1 commercial model, and then from there we're looking to sell it and actually get into the hands of firefighters. So just to be clear, we're not selling anything right now. Just testing.

[7:44] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, right on. Well, if people want to get in touch and learn more and see how they can potentially align, what's the best way to connect?

[7:50] Siddharth Thakur: They can check out our website, paradigmrobotics.tech, or if that's hard to remember, thefirebot.com.

[7:55] Kevin Sofen: Right on. That's it. Keep up the good work, excited to follow along, and we'll be in touch.

[7:59] Siddharth Thakur: Thanks, Kevin. Take care.

[8:03] Kevin Sofen: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Smart Firefighting Podcast. I truly would love to know what you think. Send me a note, post something on Twitter, and if you were so inclined, give us a review on one of the podcast channels that you listen to. Have a great day and hope to hear from you soon.