Dragon Firefighter: the robotic hose lifted by its own water jets

A hose that uses water to support itself

At first glance, Dragon Firefighter can look like a drone carrying a fire hose. The architecture is different: the hose itself is the robot.

The system described in the 2023 paper is about four metres long. Water arrives from a fire engine, travels through the hose and exits through multiple nozzles. The reaction force from those jets generates the thrust needed to lift and steer the flexible body.

The same resource therefore performs two jobs: it helps keep the robot airborne and it is the material used to attack the fire.

Why the mobile base matters

Earlier versions of the concept had already shown that a long hose could be supported by water jets, but the root of the system still required manual movement.

The research team added a remotely controlled mobile base. In the rehearsal documented in the supplementary video, the robot takes off, the base moves forward, the head approaches the target area and the nozzle directions change so that more of the water can be aimed at the fire.

The paper describes a complete sequence from take-off and approach to fire-extinguishing mode, retreat and landing.

What the footage actually represents

The Tomorrow, Tested. Short uses footage from the rehearsal analysed in the paper, not footage of the official ceremony itself.

The authors explain that they did not record their own video during the World Robot Summit 2020 Fukushima opening ceremony on 8 October 2021 because they were focused on operating the demonstration. The supplementary file instead documents a practice run.

That distinction matters. This is a controlled research demonstration of a prototype, not footage of an operational robot responding to a real building fire.

Why a robotic hose is an interesting form factor

A conventional aerial robot must carry its motors, structure and usually a limited payload. Dragon Firefighter remains physically connected to its water source.

Its aim is different: bring a controllable water nozzle closer to a dangerous fire while keeping a human operator farther away.

The research system also includes visual sensing at the tip, including a thermal camera described by the authors, so the operator can identify and target a fire source remotely.

The limitations tell us a lot

The paper does not present the robot as a finished replacement for firefighters. The team describes several practical lessons.

The passive damping system helped stabilise the long body, but the authors found that it required too much preparation time before flight. They also observed that outdoor heat and long standby periods could alter the corrugated tube through plastic deformation.

That gap between “it worked” and “it can be deployed repeatedly under harsh conditions” is one of the most important stories in field robotics.

What Tomorrow, Tested. takes from it

Dragon Firefighter is compelling because propulsion and tool function are tightly coupled. Water does not simply flow through the robot; the water actively helps move it.

That does not mean this architecture will become the standard way to fight fires. It does show a useful principle in robotics: sometimes the machine should be shaped around the task rather than forcing the task into a familiar robot form.

The exact source used for our Short is Video 1 from the Frontiers/Figshare supplementary material, published under CC BY 4.0.