A new tool for firefighter safety: Introducing our robot dog

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The San Bernardino County Fire Protection District recently welcomed a new employee to headquarters, a quadruped robot named RoboHawk. While the introduction video shows the robot meeting its new colleagues and showing off a few neat tricks, this high-tech addition is much more than that.

The robot is the result of a new partnership with HawkRobo, a robotics company that builds tools for first responders focused on public safety, security and critical infrastructure. This partnership allows County Fire to augment its robotics program with a powerful new tool that helps keep both the community and personnel safer.

So, what will it actually do? The robot will provide situational awareness and mapping inside buildings, giving firefighters a real-time picture of a structure’s layout. When dealing with a collapsed structure, firefighters must first shore up the building to prevent further collapse before entering. Now, RoboHawk can rapidly access these areas and search for victims, saving precious time at incidents where every second can mean the difference between life and death. Because it is smaller than most robots of its kind, it can access tighter spaces that would otherwise be difficult or too dangerous for rescue personnel to reach.

The robot can also carry air-monitoring equipment into hazardous materials incidents and determine oxygen levels and the presence of toxic or explosive atmospheres before personnel enter the area. In every case, the underlying goal is the same: reducing risk to County Fire’s firefighters and first responders.

Beyond emergency response, this robot will make appearances at public education events throughout the community. County Fire is excited to use it as a tool to introduce young students to the world of robotics and spark interest in science and technology careers.

County Fire welcomes this new addition to the team and looks forward to sharing more as our robotics program continues to grow.

Additional County Update News – June 18, 2026