Jeonnam-Gwangju fire service plans KRW 2.4bn firefighting robot for 800C blazes in 2027

The Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City fire headquarters will place one unmanned firefighting robot in the Jeonnam area in 2027, News1 reported on Nov 1 citing the headquarters. The project costs KRW 2.4bn, with KRW 1.2bn each from the state and the city. MEKAWIRE has not seen the agency's own document, so the details stay attributed to that report, and the report names no manufacturer.

The robot is built to withstand 800C, runs on six independently driven wheels and works for up to five hours per deployment, News1 said. It has its own spray system, a camera for seeing through smoke and a remote water cannon, and it is meant to approach within one to two metres of a fire inside factories, warehouses and underground car parks. A second unit could go to the Gwangju area in 2028 if the first performs well.

Why it matters

Similar robots already serve the capital-area and Yeongnam units and teams in Hwaseong and South Chungcheong, with 170 dispatches at 21 sites as of August, the report said. That works out to about eight dispatches per site by MEKAWIRE's calculation, a usage record that few public robot programmes can show. The money is also close in size to the KRW 3.08bn Gyeonggi set aside for its Siheung physical-AI centre, which suggests local budgets for robots are now buying equipment as well as facilities. What to watch is the procurement notice, which should reveal the maker and the unit price.