Kiwibot delivery robot catches fire - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Homer J Simpson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 03:20:47 pm
content: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46593190

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 04:24:11 pm
content: I'm sure this is exactly what the world needed at the moment.

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 04:30:58 pm
content: I see they are blaming the incident on a defective human. i.e. A Human installed a bad battery. Looks like the humans are going to be optimised out.... but then again it's a food delivering robot... so if the humans are optimised out... so very confusing...

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 04:48:21 pm
content: https://reddit.com/r/shittyrobots/

author: Towger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 05:10:58 pm
content: That is not much of a fire. Upgrading a Disney parade car with Tesla batteries and using a Chinese charge controller produces better fireworks:

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 05:48:20 pm
content: I bet their insurance when "yeaaahhh go away"

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 10:01:09 pm
content: No problem, nothing to see here, everything is alright... AI in action - it was an order for ahot lunchand the bot did its best...Now, do I get my money back now that my flaming filet mignon order is not flaming and with a fire extinguisher taste to it?

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 10:14:35 pm
content: hey i am glad I am not crazy with my ideas about lithium battery banks, i knew this could happenr.i.p. having one of these in side of your house

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 10:39:05 pm
content: Totally agree.My house is full of them. On a small scale i.e. phones, laptops etc, I'm fine with them. Electricity storage, they'd have to be at the end of the neighbour's garden

author: rfeecs
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 10:50:01 pm
content: Don't worry, the students set up a candle light vigil:https://mashable.com/article/kiwibot-fire-uc-berkeley/#otVgkdi3M5qUQuote

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 10:54:33 pm
content: UC Berkley has never been known as a School of Excellence when it comes to engineering. Unless you're talking about "Social Engineering".

author: rfeecs
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 11:15:30 pm
content: Quote from: Stray Electron on December 17, 2018, 10:54:33 pmOh, really? Oh, I thought you meant UCBerkeley.https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2018/feb/28/qs-world-university-rankings-2018-electrical-engineering

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2018, 11:25:36 pm
content: Quote from: bd139 on December 17, 2018, 10:39:05 pmYou can do some stuff, I keep my power tool batteries in the top compartment of a Milwaukee tool box, its fairly thick steel and it should dissipate a burn some what. I also don't leave em in the charger when they are done.https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/Storage-Solutions/Steel-Storage/48-22-8530I have been thinking about battery safety for a while now. I think that a good worst case simulator for a lithium ion battery would be a similar sized piece of magnesium flare (often used as a high visibility flare for boating) in order to test a chassis. I am fairly confident you can reuse their formulation or just use a cast slow burning high magnesium content pyrotechnical mixture.My idea for a battery simulator was to make a thin cardboard tube ( you can roll layers of craft paper on a dowel with elmers glue on it to make a composite tube thats stiff), put it into a jig and then use a arbor press to squeeze it into the tube and compact it to the specifications, then electronically ignite it in your chassis to see what happens.\maybe pop off a small salute in the end of the burn to simulate what happens if it bursts when everything is already hot.

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2018, 12:01:08 am
content: I'm not too bothered with small stuff. I went on a fire safety day course a while back plus I've stabbed a few fully charged packs to see what would happen which is quite interesting.If it goes up, it goes up. The thing to do is plan for worst case. For me this is all exits clear, no charging unattended (that includes asleep at night - everything goes off!!!), fire plan, proper smoke and CO2 detectors in the house and suitable fire extinguishers. You can't really fight a lithium fire without a class D fire extinguisher and those are really expensive so best thing is let it burn but prevent spread so treat what's around it like it's already on fire. Then wait for the professionals to turn up.The killers are very high energy density packs like storage. The average laptop or phone will burn out in a few seconds. RC lipo packs or above need protective storage IMHO.