I have to admit, my line of work often brings me face-to-face with all sorts of wacky technologies, even ones destructive in nature. But flamethrowers are not things that come across my screen all that often.
The first time that happened was a few years back, when Elon Musk thought it could be fun to give average Joes access to weapon-shaped flamethrowers that could effectively torch stuff. We all know how that went, so I won't get into it once again.
The list of things that quite often cross my screen is extensive though, and robot dogs are an important part of it, of course. After all, these robotic tools could forever change our lives in the future, as they can be used for anything from disaster relief to monitoring dangerous places inside factories and such.
So, on the one hand we have the totally-useless-for-civilian-use flamethrower, and on the other the highly-specialized robot dog. So, how about mating the two? Now that's something I didn't quite expect catching my eye anytime soon.
Yet here it is, the mighty Thermonator, "the first-ever flamethrower-wielding robot dog."
The thing is being put together by a New York-based company called Throwflame. As the name says, they're in the business of making flamethrowers, with three versions currently on sale: the X-18, X-15, and TF-19 WASP.
A fourth flamethrower is brand new, and it's called ARC. Here too the secret is in the name, as the thing uses a plasma arc ignition to start throwing flames to distances of up to 30 feet (9 meters).
Highly customizable (the company says it can be equipped with a wide range of firearm accessories), the flamethrower has another neat feature about it: it comes with a quad rail, and that means it can be installed on whatever platform is available. Including, you guessed, robot dogs.
And that's exactly what Throwflame did, fitting the ARC on a robot dog and giving birth to the Thermonator. And mind you, this is not some proof of concept or wacky idea meant to generate views and interest, but a real-life product that's set to enter the market in the third quarter of the year.
At this point not much is known about what kind of robot dog was used for the Thermonator (there are several companies making such machines), but I guess it doesn't really matter, given how all of them could be weaponized like this. It's also unclear how much the company will charge for the system, but for reference the ARC flamethrower alone is $699, and robot dogs a lot more than that.
We'll keep an eye on this thing in the months ahead, and update as soon as we learn more. In the meantime, sweet dreams!
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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