Four female Qatari graduates from Qatar University’s (QU) College of Engineering have locally designed, built and tested a first-of-its-kind robotic firefighting vehicle, it was announced on Thursday.

Al-Maha al-Shamari, Jawaher al-Sulaiti, Ghader al-Sharshani and Bashayr al-Mehaiza, who graduated from the College’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, accomplished the task under the supervision of Dr Jamil Renno.

The remotely controlled robotic firefighting vehicle is kitted with a 360 degree panoramic camera that streams live video to a mobile phone or to a central control room.

The robot is also equipped with a gas detector that feeds back gas levels to the firefighters on the ground.

The four engineers, now adopted by Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), are enhancing their design to make it more suitable for extinguishing fires in oil and gas facilities.

The team has held several fruitful meetings with governmental and commercial stakeholders with a view to launch a Qatari company that will produce these robotic vehicles for deployment at sites in the country.

This effort fits within Qatar National Vision 2030 as a step towards diversifying the economy and contributes towards the transformation into a knowledge-based economy, a QU statement elaborted.