TreeHugger
forest fire fighting robot photo
All images via Tuvie
Okay, wow. Here's an idea for you--a giant, saw blade-wielding robot that can be unleashed to fight forest fires. See, it can be deployed to rapidly clear cut a section of forest to contain a blaze with those massive buzz saws, sparing pristine acres and saving lives. Just goes to show what a generation of designers reared on a steady diet of Transformers, Voltron, and I guess, Captain Planet can do when they put their mind to it.
Not sure if this design is old, but I'd never seen it before. Tuvie reports that it took 6 months to complete. And it was just so over-the-top, I couldn't pass up a post on it. So many questions remain--how is the thing to be powered? Why is it bright orange? What does it transform into?
Sarcasm aside, it's good to see such forward-thinking design put towards green causes--even if it's likely to remain entirely impractical for the foreseeable future. And yes, California could probably use a fleet of these if they were ever (somehow) able to be put into production. And if they all one day turned on their human masters, at least the state's got a governor who'd know how to stop them . . .
The way it looks like it would work is the two arms on top would grab a tree it intended to cut, while the arms with saws on end would come in and slice it at it's base.
There may even be a stripping mechanism in those appendages to strip away the bark, similar to how logging machines work today.
Scroll down for more images of what this incredible machine would look like.
The forest-fighting robot was conceived by Detroit designer Jordon Guelde.
As you can see, the thing is intended to be huge . . .
That pile in the background? Used to be a rain forest. All in a day's work.
