"BurnBot isn't the fastest way to rid a landscape of dangerously flammable vegetation (it tops out at around 0.5 mph) but it can do something that traditional vegetation management techniques cannot: with almost surgical precision, it can kill the flammable brush sitting within feet of homes and highways on even the hottest and driest days and with virtually no safety risks or disruptions to daily life."
"On a recent summer afternoon, as wildland firefighters maneuvered the machine and mopped up the charred earth on a stretch of highway about 30 miles west of Los Angeles on the 101, a who's who of SoCal's wildfire leadership looked on - from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, local fire departments, Caltrans, the U.S. forest and park services, Southern California Edison and state Legislature."
BurnBot is a giant, remote-controlled vehicle that conducts controlled burns of flammable grass alongside buildings, highways and interchanges. It creates narrow, charred firebreaks that stop flames from spreading and favors the regrowth of native, more fire-resistant vegetation over invasive, combustible grasses. The machine moves slowly at about 0.5 mph and operates with surgical precision, allowing burns to occur safely even on hot, dry days without major disruptions. Operators extinguish smoldering spots after passes to ensure containment. Firefighting, transportation and utility agencies have observed trials to evaluate its role in vegetation management and wildfire risk reduction.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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