See Thermonator, The Flame-Throwing Robot Dog You Can Now Own In Action
A robotic dog armed with a flamethrower seems like something only a comic book supervillain could own, but that’s no longer the case. Thanks to the flamethrower company Throwflame, the Thermonator is now available for sale. The robot, which looks like something out of science fiction, can be purchased on the company’s website.
The Thermonator comes fully equipped with everything you could ever want on your flamethrower robot dog. The 37-pound robot is equipped with Throwflame’s ARC Flamethrower, which has a range of 30 feet. The robot includes a built-in fuel tank for the flamethrower’s gasoline, lidar mapping, FPV navigation, laser sighting, a one-hour battery, and an app to control the machine.
While the flamethrower attachment is what makes the Thermonator so notable, it’s not the only robotic dog-like quadruped on the market.
Thermonator’s existence raises the question of what the purpose of a remote-controlled quadrupedal flamethrower is. Throwflame markets the device’s uses as wildfire control, agricultural management, ecological conservation, snow removal, and special effects. While some of those applications seem surprisingly practical, it’s not hard to imagine the robot being used for more nefarious and dangerous purposes.
While the Thermonator is the company’s first quadrupedal flamethrower, it’s not their only remote-controlled mobile flamethrower. The TF-19 WASP is a drone-attached flamethrower made by the same company. Like its dog-shaped companion, the WASP is available for purchase on the company’s website.
For a fire-breathing dog straight out of a sci-fi novel, Thermonator is surprisingly affordable. It costs $9,420, which is a lot of money but for something most of us never thought would exist, it feels like a steal. It even comes with free shipping in the United States.
Robotics have advanced rapidly in the past few decades, and as they become more available and common, the novelty of something like Thermonator may wear off.
While some science fiction technologies have remained fiction, it’s odd to see specialized robots like Thermonator becoming commercially available. The concept of a robotic dog that sprouts flames specifically evokes the Ray Bradbury book Farenhite 451, in which similar robots called The Hounds were used to burn books. Perhaps it’s these negative connotations created by science fiction stories that make these products seem sinister.
While the flamethrower attachment is what makes the Thermonator so notable, it’s not the only robotic dog-like quadruped on the market. The Unitree Go1 is a similar robotic dog that is commercially available, costing $2,700 for the base model. Boston Dynamics iconic Spot robots are also available to consumers, though a fixed price isn’t displayed on their website.
Thermonator’s existence raises the question of what the purpose of a remote-controlled quadrupedal flamethrower is.
Robotics have advanced rapidly in the past few decades, and as they become more available and common, the novelty of something like Thermonator may wear off. While Boston Dynamic’s Spot robots are on sale now, their humanoid Atlas models will likely be purchasable in the near future. These commercially available robots move us closer and closer to the science fiction view of a society where humans walk and work alongside robots in our everyday lives.
The existence and availability of Thermonator confirm that we will all live in the future. Hopefully, as humans, we will use our flamethrower-wielding robot dogs responsibly to limit risk to firefighters and aid in agriculture. Of course, the next step in fulfilling our science fiction-inspired society will be equipping our dangerous robots with AI technology, which is guaranteed to fill people with dread.
