The BurnBot RX burns unwanted vegetation without emitting smoke.
Lora Kolodny interviewed by CNBC
Last year’s record heat wave exacerbated drought and dryness conditions around the world, and the situation was particularly severe in California, where 13 of 20 states experienced drought. most destructive wildfires The historical outbreak began in 2017.
In South San Francisco, a small startup is working on a high-tech way to prevent wildfires.
Anukool Lakhina and Waleed “Lee” Haddad founded BurnBot in 2022 to develop robots and remote-controlled vehicles that can chew and burn invasive or other dry vegetation that could start fires if left unused.
BurnBot just raised $20 million in funding, led by climate-focused ReGen Ventures, to expand, recruit and develop new machines that can traverse steeper hills and enter tighter spaces.
Before BurnBot, firefighters and landowners had to use expensive, time-consuming, and more dangerous options such as grazing vegetation (usually goats), burning, using herbicides, or mechanically removing vegetation using a combination of equipment and manual labor.
“The traditional way to do prescribed burning is to use a drip torch, which requires a lot of personnel,” said BurnBot CEO Lakhina. “A drip torch is like a diesel watering can. You walk around, drip the diesel, and then ignite it.”
Burnbot’s current model, the RX, is a remote-controlled vehicle that looks like a cross between an oversized Zamboni and a steel stove, with a set of fire extinguishers strapped to the back. Like other agricultural and construction equipment, the RX rolls forward on tank-like tracks and wheels, which allow it to maneuver through rough fields.
The RX’s interior features rows of torches that emit blue flames and precisely adjust heat levels to destroy unwanted vegetation or other fuels on the ground below. The BurnBot RX’s combustion chamber also captures and burns away smoke from burning vegetation so it doesn’t pollute the air in surrounding communities. Once ignition is complete, the RX sprays water repeatedly to extinguish remaining embers.
A torch is ignited in the BurnBot RX’s chamber to complete the prescribed combustion job.
Lora Kolodny interviewed by CNBC
Lakhina said BurnBot’s system can be used where traditional controlled combustion fails. For example, burning drip torches can produce large amounts of smoke that is conductive enough to interfere with the proper operation of power lines or high-voltage equipment. BurnBot’s machines can even be used under power lines.
Lakhina said the company’s goal is to make everyone involved in firefighting 10 times more efficient than using older methods.
Haddad, BurnBot’s chief technology officer, noted that land is not always ready to “accept fire” in prescribed burns. So the company programmed a device purchased from another supplier to roll in front of the RX, crushing vegetation in the area before preparing to ignite.
BurnBot is scheduled to conduct prescribed burns this Friday in San Diego, a project of Caltrans, the state’s transportation agency.It also plans to burn again pacific gas and electric co.In June, the state’s major utility companies.
PG&E spends more than $1 billion annually on “vegetation management.” Kevin Johnson, who leads the company’s Wildfire Resilience Partnerships said PG&E is always “looking for opportunities to do this work safer, faster, cheaper and more environmentally friendly.”
BurnBot has completed a demonstration of its controlled burner under a PG&E transmission line.
Brice Muenzer, battalion chief for Cal Fire in Monterey, Calif., said the large-scale fires that have broken out in the state and across the country over the past decade are partly the result of an overzealous effort to fight smaller fires, including in indigenous communities. ritual fires) and certainly exacerbated the situation.
“We have eliminated fire from the ecosystem over the past 150 years and are now experiencing this reality,” the official said.
Cal Fire worked with BurnBot personnel, machines and additional drones to establish so-called scene containment lines at at least one location. Muenzer said the group hopes to do more with the startup.
Creating control lines, or black lines painted on the land, requires firefighters to strategically burn areas during calm weather and can control the flames to create scars that prevent other fires from spreading and reaching areas where there is a lot of new material burning.
BurnBot co-founder (LR) CTO Waleed “Lee” Haddad and CEO Anukool Lakhina
Lora Kolodny interviewed by CNBC
BurnBot aims to eventually expand beyond California, with offices and fleets of machines wherever vegetation management is needed and wildfire risk is highest.
“The U.S. Forest Service says there are 50 million acres of land that need to be treated every year, and that’s just forest land,” Lachner said. A total of 237 million acres of land in the United States require management. And grazing can cost $1,000 per acre. “
Lashina added that the health of children is at risk as well as property and healthy forests.according to Harvard School of Public Healthwildfire smoke may be more toxic than Air pollution from other sourcesleading to more emergency room visits, especially among exposed children.
Haddad said that because BurnBot offers greater precision than grazing, herbicides and mechanical removal, its system is also more ecologically beneficial. For example, BurnBot RX can help prevent the spread of seeds of invasive species without causing herbicide resistance in any of those species.
ReGen participated in BurnBot’s funding round from investors including AmFam Ventures (the venture capital arm of the insurance company), Toyota Ventures, and early backers including robotics fund Pathbreaker, Convective Capital and Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital.
watch: Maui revisited six months after devastating wildfires
About The Author
