Colossus

Four years after it rolled into the burning Notre-Dame cathedral in 2019, the Colossus had become a standard tool of the Polish State Fire Service, which by May 2024 operated eight units across Warsaw, Poznań, Gdynia, Lublin, Kraków, Łódź, Leżajsk and the Fire Academy; one fought the Marywilska 44 shopping-hall fire in Warsaw.

Built by Shark Robotics of La Rochelle since 2017, the electric tracked UGV weighs 525 kg, measures 160 × 78 × 76 cm, carries 500 kg, pulls 1,100 kg and pushes 1,000 kg; six swappable lithium-ion packs give 12 hours of operation at 3.5 km/h, with IP67 sealing and a heat shield.

Eight tool-free modules include a water and foam monitor up to 3,000 l/min, a battering ram, self-protection spray, winch, a transport deck for evacuating people or equipment, smoke extraction and a 70 kg manipulator arm. Day and thermal cameras, a 360-degree camera and LED lights feed a tablet controller over roughly 1,000 m with mesh relays.

Other users are the Paris fire brigade BSPP (four units), the Marseille marine firefighters (two), YPF in Argentina and Ukraine's DSNS, which received 40 robots through a French donation worth 14.5 million EUR, about 362,500 EUR per unit including a training programme. The US dealer RobotLAB lists the Colossus at 210,000 USD before duties.

Poland's newer purchase, the TEC 800, is 25 kg lighter and faster at 12 km/h.