Firefighting & BOS Operations

Application

Why robots in BOS operations?

Public safety agencies (BOS) — fire brigades, police, emergency services, THW, civil protection — regularly work under conditions that are dangerous for humans: burning buildings, collapsed structures, contaminated zones, ordnance and CBRN situations. Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) take on exactly those tasks that bring the highest risk to responders — reconnaissance, direct fire contact, material transport in hazard zones.

The trend is clear: fire brigades in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and France are increasingly procuring firefighting and reconnaissance robots. What was developed for heavy industry and the military is now becoming accessible to municipal brigades — smaller, more affordable and more operator-friendly.

Typical mission scenarios

• Interior firefighting — water-cannon robot goes where breathing-apparatus teams would take too long or be too exposed (chemical warehouses, underground car parks, smoke-filled halls).
• Reconnaissance and situational awareness — before the operational engagement: situation picture, person search, hazardous-goods identification via thermal camera and gas detector.
• Wildfire and vegetation fires — robot drives in off-road terrain where fire trucks cannot reach.
• Debris reconnaissance after earthquakes, explosions, building collapses — person search with camera + microphone, mapping of the damage area.
• Material transport in hazard zones — equipment to the team, injured person out of the hazard zone (with stretcher module).

The NEXOS configuration

The PALLAS family by ALPS.Robotics covers the entire size range:

• PALLAS.75 — compact, ~75 cm, agile, for interior firefighting and reconnaissance. Payload approx. 25 kg.
• PALLAS.150 to PALLAS.800 — medium-weight class for stationary water cannons, debris reconnaissance, longer mission duration.
• PALLAS.2400 — heavy payload, for large fires and industrial operations with high water throughput.

All variants share the chassis base and control software — this simplifies training, spare-part stocking and combinability within a brigade.

The payload modules are mounted via a quick-change frame — water cannon, thermal-camera kit, sensor cluster (gas detector, chemistry sensors), lighting, tool carrier. This allows one vehicle to take on multiple roles — depending on the mission.

Control & communication

• Ruggedized operator device — IP65, glove-compatible, compatible with firefighter protective clothing.
• Live video and sensor streams from the mission area — several channels in parallel (RGB, thermal, environmental sensors).
• Redundant radio link — LTE/5G base, fallback to the BOS-owned TETRA/BOS digital radio possible.
• Fail-safe control — defined safety mode on radio loss (halt, return to start point, watchdog).

Safety & legal

PALLAS platforms are designed for use by trained specialists. Operation in line of sight or via camera vision with defined operational safety. Use in populated areas requires an application-specific risk assessment — analogous to AGV systems per ISO 3691-4, complemented by BOS-specific aspects.

All PALLAS variants are strictly civilian — no armament, no military features. For customers with strict exclusion criteria, a clean separation from the military ODIN family by NEXOS.Defence.