Autonomous Rescue And Firefighting Boat ‘ALICE’: A FireDos M1 Firefighting Monitor on the high seas

ALICE (A Livesaver in Case of Emergency) is an autonomous boat developed by the Dutch company DPRZ. Guido Steijaert, the founder of DPRZ, has turned his sonar hobby into a profession and specialises in sonar training for fire brigades, police, rescue services and water associations. ALICE was born in 2022 and is based on the idea of combining an AI solution for recognising underwater objects with an autonomous boat.

The autonomous boat ALICE is equipped with a sonar detection system (G-SAR) and an AI solution that makes it possible to analyse sonar images remotely by assigning the detected underwater objects to the categories car, boat or human victim with calculated probabilities. Thanks to this system, an underwater object can also be precisely located on a map.

ALICE is a sustainable boat, powered by an electric motor and made from an aluminium rigid inflatable boat (RIB) supplied by Lavamarine. Numerous sensors and state-of-the-art navigation and GPS systems enable ALICE to collect information about its surroundings and its own location and to navigate accordingly.

Equipped with a thermal imaging camera that can be rotated 360 degrees, the autonomous ALICE fireboat not only detects people in the water up to a distance of 750 metres, but also sources of fire. An M1 extinguishing monitor from FireDos was installed for firefighting. Naturally, we wanted to find out more about this. Guido Steijaert from DPRZ answered our questions.

Our aim was to equip a remote-controlled ship with extinguishing technology. Firefighting robots and automatic solutions are gradually finding their way into the maritime world. There isn't much robotics on the water yet and we wanted to develop an innovative solution. 

The extinguishing monitor is controlled remotely. It can sometimes be difficult to judge the location of the source of a fire purely visually. By combining artificial intelligence and thermal imaging cameras, we can significantly increase the informative value of fire detection. 

Our choice fell directly on FireDos. FireDos wanted to explore the market with us. FireDos provided an M1 extinguishing monitor for this purpose. Our solution is scalable – larger extinguishing monitors with a height of 4 to 8 metres can also be used. 

It would be nice to build a boat like this in series. We have taken the first step with the market launch. There are numerous potential areas of application. We manufacture the boat according to individual customer requirements, whereby the configuration depends on the area of application, the range and the operating time. However, the centrepiece – AI and thermal imaging camera – basically remains the same. 

The extinguishing monitor is controlled by the on-board computer. This on-board computer is operated by a fire brigade operator. 

The solution is well received and generates interest. We have also realised that there are many requests for special features, which means that a standard solution is more likely to be avoided. We have had many interesting discussions and initiated many projects.

The boat is supplied with power via a 20 kW battery and optional extension. A DC-DC converter is used to convert the 48 V into 24 V. The monitor is operated by an electric centrifugal pump with a capacity of 1,110 l/min and is equipped with a variable battery pack for the electrical power supply. The battery pack is available with a capacity of 20 kw/h (operating time 2 hours) up to a maximum of 80 kw/h.

The boat is a sensible investment for fire brigades in cities with a canal structure, such as Amsterdam. Large harbour companies and petrochemical companies also benefit from it.   

Solutions could also be considered for cruise ships or tankers, for example. Until now, fires on ships have mostly been fought from the ship. If the fire could be extinguished from the water by a remote-controlled unit, it would be safer for the crew and the source of the fire could be more easily accessible. 

 

Many Thanks to Guido Steijaert from DPRZ!