Yiannis Levendis, a professor at Northeastern University, has developed a robotic firefighting prototype that uses liquid nitrogen to rapidly extinguish wildfires without harming the environment. Deploying autonomous or remote-controlled robots keeps human firefighters out of extreme danger, making the loss of a machine far preferable to risking lives. It started with a stroke of scientific curiosity and a handful of shredded car tires.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/sksarkpoes3: --- Yiannis Levendis, a professor at Northeastern University, has developed a robotic firefighting prototype that uses liquid nitrogen to rapidly extinguish wildfires without harming the environment. Deploying autonomous or remote-controlled robots keeps human firefighters out of extreme danger, making the loss of a machine far preferable to risking lives. It started with a stroke of scientific curiosity and a handful of shredded car tires. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1vcqglc/new_cryogenic_firefighting_robot_uses_liquid/p133y7c/
As long as there are no humans in the vicinity may work. Sorry 1st responders we are going to displace O2 in the vicinity. Hold your breath.
In fairness, they're the most likely to have their own respirators because smoke and stuff
Availability of LN2 will make this pretty useless for wildfires. There is basically no situation where you can get LN2 on the scene faster, easier, or cheaper than water in quantities that would make a difference.
Probably be used in cases where it's close to a city.
I feel like wildfire fighting is a field where we're going to see all sorts of people throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks, best of luck to the guy. Throwing humans with water sprayers at the problem isn't sufficient. We know that.