
The Drones and Robots That Helped Save Notre Dame - wardn
https://hackaday.com/2019/04/17/the-drones-and-robots-that-helped-save-notre-dame/
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funkaster
while the Colossus looks really interesting, I think the biggest impact was
the video feed. I don't have the specs, but just by quick glancing of the
video, that small stream of water probably didn't help at all in this
particular case. You would have to be way closer for it to be effective, or
use a different pattern of water if you're trying to achieve something else
(e.g. ventilation or cooling down). In any case, really interesting tech.

Source: firefighter for over 8 years, attend hundreds of structural fires,
tens of 5+ alarms, few of them in historical buildings.

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treis
I've noticed that people have been giving a lot of credit to the fire
fighters. It's clear they tried their best and risked their lives to remove
the artifacts that they could. But it's also clear that everything that could
burn did burn:

[https://images.app.goo.gl/PsAzFTwaz9rRC4Qp6](https://images.app.goo.gl/PsAzFTwaz9rRC4Qp6)

The entire roof is in ashes and there doesn't appear to be anything
combustible left.

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melkiaur
You missed the part about the trusses in the bell tower that didn't burn. If
they burnt and the bells fell (13 tons for the biggest one!), then the whole
building would have collapsed.

They had guys in the tower, protecting that.

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cesarb
> They instead borrowed two commercially available models which were in
> service with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Culture. [...]
> But DJI actually has a system in place where operators can request these
> limitations be lifted temporarily, which allowed the manufacturer to work
> quickly with the French authorities

Given that both drones were owned by branches of the French government, it's
possible that they already had their geofencing permanently disabled, at least
within France.

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stcredzero
My awareness comes from a tragic event, but I still must say that the Colossus
is pretty cool. I wonder if the birdlike Boston Dynamics robot could be
adapted for indoor firefighting in confined spaces. (Perhaps with a
flippable/rotatable 4 wheeled gimbal like the Dean Kamen iBot has, which would
enable stair climbing.)

[https://gizmodo.com/boston-dynamics-new-robot-is-a-giant-
seg...](https://gizmodo.com/boston-dynamics-new-robot-is-a-giant-segway-bird-
that-l-1833666944)

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gpm
Flying drones close to a fire seems like a counter productive idea, flight is
achieved by pushing lots of air around, pushing lots of air around increases
the amount of oxygen available to the fire.

Edit: Oops - not flying - so this comment makes no sense. I thought you meant
some of the bird-like drones we've seen.

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Notorious_BLT
The bird-like Boston Dynamics bots aren't flying drones, they are more like
ostriches in shape, and they balance on two wheels on legs with a neck-like
arm for manipulating things

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gpm
You're right... oops. Sorry.

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mitfahrener
Chinese technology. Designed and built in China.

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Luc
The drones you mean? The Colossus by Shark Robotics is designed and made in
France.

Impressive thing. 8h autonomy, can go up stairs.

