Throwflame Thermonator is a Flamethrowing Robotic Dog That Throws Flames up to 30 Feet

It’s approaching two decades since Boston Dynamics first unveiled its robotic dog back in 2005. Spot as it was named, was intended to be a demonstration of what was possible in the emerging robotics industry. Since then, the technology has grown exponentially and many countries from China to Japan has entered the robotic dog race creating their own version of the original Spot robotic dog and making it available for sale to the general public.

Today, robotic dogs are moving into every sphere of our lives, recently the New York police department announced they would be using robotic dogs for dangerous missions. We also witnessed a robotic dog outfitted with a machine gun that made the runs on social media. Now we are witnessing robotic dogs being outfitted with flamethrowers. You read that correctly, someone turned a robot dog into a miniature flamethrowing dragon. Throwflame Thermonator as it’s being called is a highly advanced robotic dog outfitted with a flamethrower.

The flamethrowing robot dog is built off the Unitree Go1, a consumer grade bionic quadrupled robot dog that is smaller than the original Boston Dynamics Spot. Unlike Spot, the Unitree Go1 has a face equipped with a litany of sensors that allow it to see its environment, gauge distances, recognize angles and identify targets. Additionally, it can be programmed for completely autonomous missions.

All this is made possible by a 16-Core CPU and 1.5-TFLOP GPU that allow the machine to run sophisticated AI algorithms in real time. As with all robotic dogs, the Thermonator has flexible joints resembling a real dog that allows it to walk at speeds of up to 10 mph. The entire shenanigan with the flamethrower kit attached weighs about 26 pounds which is light enough to be picked up and carried around manually.

The flamethrower mounted on the Unitree Go1 is a compact all-electric model that is designed to be modular and adaptable to different setups. It can throw flames at ranges of up to 30 feet. That is enough distance to set anything ablaze without endangering the robotic dog. The flamethrower is equipped with a built-in fuel tank that takes about half gallon of gasoline or a gasoline-diesel mix. The flamethrower can be operated by a wireless remote or can be programmed into the robotic dog to make autonomous decisions, which is probably not a good idea.