The UK Security and Fire Fighting Advanced Robot project

Describes the current status of the UK´s Security and Fire Fighting Advanced Robot (SAFFAR) project within the International Advanced Robotic Programme (IARP). In the UK the majority of nondomestic fire losses are as a result of arson. The SAFFAR robot is intended as a relatively low cost high performance device which will act as a powerful deterrent to unauthorised intrusion into a premises by markedly increasing the incidence of arrest of such intruders. It also carries a `first strike´ fire fighting capability which should prevent, for example petrol bomb fires, from taking hold. The robot design concept has been to provide varying levels of performance complexity (and associated costs), by stand alone `modules´ for both hardware and software elements which can then be `assembled´ into a variety of core designs and variants