Water-spitting ‘flying dragon’ robot to fight fires

Researchers in Japan have developed Dragon Firefighter — an autonomous firehose-wielding flying robot trained to extinguish dangerous fires in challenging locations.

The open-source robot is designed for emergency responders to safely suppress hazardous blazes using its integrated thermal camera and array of adjustable nozzles.

In today’s Must Read, we explore how this radical robot could soon join more emergency response teams thanks to its designers sharing their blueprints with developers around the world.

♻️ New podcast Engineering sustainability: Navigating green tech with a global manufacturing network.

✅ Don’t miss our weekly roundup of the most important engineering news! Get Vital Component every Sunday.

Good morning. I’m Tim, newsletter editor at IE.

This is the Blueprint. Let’s get into it!

• 🚀 NASA’s 3D-printed engine produces 5,800 pounds of thrust in new test The engine could one day help humans land on Mars.

• 🪨 Japan's space agency plans to steer small asteroids away from Earth Data from JAXA's Hayabusa-2 could be crucial for planetary defense and asteroid mining ambitions

• 🦅 Australian wind farm switches to AI-powered tech to save eagles The system will stop turbines from spinning when birds are flying in the vicinity.

• 📲 Apple’s new AI research could totally transform your iPhone Two research papers reveal what’s cooking behind the scenes.

Modeled after mythical flying dragons, the Dragon Firefighter drone features eight high-powered water jets capable of spraying 6.6 liters per second at up to one megapascal of pressure.

Propelled by strategically-placed adjustable nozzles, it identifies remote targets using thermal and optical cameras before dousing intense flames from close quarters.

Having proven its fire extinguishing prowess at demonstration events, its creators now hope that publicly releasing their robot’s plans will enable capable teams across the globe to reproduce and deploy the technology within the next decade.

Earlier this week we reported on China's Shenlong space plane releasing six enigmatic "wingmen" objects in orbit. Now, amateur trackers monitoring the secretive reusable space shuttle’s activities have detected unusual signals, potentially sent to a hidden North American ground station. Click below to learn more about what these maneuvers and clandestine communications may mean.

Dutch researchers guided corkscrew-like “millirobots” to swim through blood vessel mockups and drill out simulated clots. Navigating against the flow by rotating tiny internal magnets, the proof-of-concept trials successfully achieved precise navigation toward obstructions. If the prototypes' capabilities translate to human trials, this could be a breakthrough in dealing with inaccessible blockages.

In this section you’ll find the latest jobs as featured on: jobs.interestingengineering.com

• IE₊ Is the Apple Vision Pro the future of vision science?

• Octopus DNA reveals West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse 129,000 years ago

• The 15 best christmas gifts to consider for your loved ones

• This spooky AI model will tell you the time of your death

• 11 of the biggest unanswered space mysteries

what else?

⚙️ To explore the wonders of mechanical engineering, get your Mechanical

🔷 For all the week’s top engineering stories, subscribe to the Vital Component

🧑🏻‍🔧 For expert advice on engineering careers, subscribe to Engineer Pros

🧠 New: To get the latest AI news every Monday, subscribe to AI Logs

🎬 For a weekly round-up of our best science, tech & engineering videos, subscribe to IE Originals

For our weekly premium newsletter and an ad-free experience, sign up for IE+

Give Feedback