BurnBots at work: Bend Fire using robots to clear wildfire fuels in Deschutes River Woods
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — There are robots in the woods just outside of Bend, and you might have even seen them while you're driving down Highway 97.
Bend Fire needs to clear an area along the highway and railroad tracks near Deschutes River Woods, and it's using that area to test a new program with some interesting technology.
They're using remote-control mulching machines made by BurnBot Inc. Its powerful carbide teeth are perfect for chewing up brush and shrubs to reduce fuels for fire.
The Burn Bot is operated by a technician who follows the robot around with a remote control. The bots are diesel-powered and can clear four to five acres a day on a 10-gallon tank. With four of them out near DRW, they're clearing a large area quickly.
The primary reason for using these robots is they can be safer than manned vehicles.
Bend Fire Inspector Melissa Steele said, "If you're thinking of a 20-person hand crew that's coming in and doing this fuels mitigation work, you're having a lot of logistics, you know, for that 0 feeding them, and all those things that you would see. At a fire scene or a mitigation project, we have four operators out here. There's less people around the train tracks, and the equipment themselves are pretty safe."
These BurnBots can handle tough terrain and steep slopes, which could be dangerous for an operator to drive over. However, human crews are not going to be replaced any time soon. These robots are great on the ground, but hand crews are used to delimb and trim trees.
Stefano Cipollone, the senior director of field operations for Burn Bot, said, "Hand crews definitely have a place, and we will always have a place in fuel reduction work. We just want to make sure that they are being used in the areas that they can be the most effective, where we can be effective for them as well, and helping them achieve their fuels mitigation goals is kind of how we've been working together."
We could be seeing more BurnBots in the future, if this goes operation well. Bend Fire has some other projects in mind for them. The robotics companies also have other models for larger-scale jobs, and even robots that can do controlled burns.
