Student Engineers Develop Firefighting Robot as Wildfire Fears Rise

By Elijah Carll

Reporting Texas

Version 3 of the FireBot, taken inside the Paradigm Robotics workshop. Elijah Carll/ Reporting Texas

According to a 2024 CoreLogic risk report, Austin ranks as the fifth most at-risk city for wildfire destruction nationwide. That same year, wildfires burned 1.3 million acres in Texas, and with high winds sweeping across the state Tuesday, officials with the National Weather Service warned of “potentially historic” wildfire risk.

At a small workshop inside the Texas Innovation Center at the Cockrell School of Engineering, a student startup called Paradigm Robotics is working on building the perfect firefighter helper. They call it Firebot.

Siddharth Thakur, a senior Electrical and Computer engineering student and the CEO of Paradigm Robotics, said the heat-resistant robot will help firefighters look into hard-to-reach areas while minimizing the risks they take on.

“(It) can go into structure fires to look for people, identify any signs of human life and get that life-saving, mission-critical situational awareness so that firefighters don’t have to risk their lives,” said Thakur.

Thakur was in middle school in 2013 when  a hotel in Houston caught fire, killing five firefighters. When the roof of the hotel collapsed, four were still inside attempting to locate victims.

Knowing a few of the firefighters involved in the incident, Thakur, already an aspiring engineer, began to wonder what he could do to help.

“I reached out to my local fire chief and asked them, ‘How did this happen’?” Thakur said. “Learning of the vast dangers that they face, I started trying to think: Could technology help here?”

That initial question would spark a project that had continued on for 12 years. Today, the robot comes with a variety of different features: Heat-resistant shielding, tank-like tracks, and a collection of cameras and sensors ranging from infrared to radar.

When Thakur arrived at the University of Texas, he pitched the idea to roommate, fellow engineering student Krishnan Ram. After going over schematics and ideas for the FireBot together, they began to form a partnership, eventually co-founded Paradigm Robotics.

Ram, now chief technology officer, says the project allows him to serve others in a meaningful and lasting way.

“It is a well-oiled machine,” Ram said. “We are doing collaborative engineering 24/7, everybody’s doing their own part. It’s really, really cool to be able to be part of that bigger picture.”

Besides the immediate risks, Thakur and Ram also hope the FireBot will help firefighters avoid long-term health risks. They’re 14% more likely to die from cancer than the general public, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The International Association of Firefighters reported that from 2002 to 2019, cancer caused 66% of line-of-duty deaths amongst career firefighters.

Thakur and Ram have also consulted fire departments across the country, including the Austin Fire Department. Jason Burnside, the program manager of the Austin Fire Department’s Robotic Emergency Deployment (RED) team, is excited about the direction of the project.

“It’s not going to be for every scenario, but they’re trying to really iterate on something that could improve the safety of firefighters,” Burnside said. “You can tell when you talk with them that this is their passion.”

“(They’re) going to end up developing a product that more than likely will earn its place on a fire truck someday,” said Burnside.