AI-generated image
The international competition brings together student teams from more than 190 countries to work on major environmental and technology problems.
The students spoke with Kent Fire and Rescue Service during the early stages of the project, according to a report by Kent news outlet Shepway Vox. This year’s challenge focuses on preventing, controlling and recovering from wildfires in a warming world. For the competition, the Folkestone students designed an autonomous vehicle with long, folding arms that can clear paths up to five metres wide through dry vegetation. The system removes plants and other surface material that can fuel a fire, creating natural firebreaks that can slow the spread of flames without putting firefighters directly in danger. The five students worked with professional firefighters to make sure their design could deal with the real conditions faced during wildfires. The firefighters helped them understand how wildfires spread across difficult terrain. Their advice led the team to focus on building a lightweight and stable robot that could extend its arms across uneven ground without tipping over. The students also used standard parts supplied by the competition organisers to program the robot’s autonomous driving system. The software allows the machine to avoid obstacles, clear debris and work on its own in areas where thick smoke could make remote control difficult.