Five British schoolgirls built a robot with folding arms designed to create wildfire firebreaks

Five schoolgirls from Kent, aged between 14 and 15, have built a robot with five-metre folding arms to help fight wildfires. Their work has earned them the chance to represent Great Britain at an international robotics competition in South Korea. The team from The Folkestone School for Girls, known as Team Meglabyte, designed the robot to clear dry plants and create paths that remove fuel from the spread of fires. The school's robotics club was only founded in 2024, but it has now been chosen to represent Great Britain at the FIRST Global Challenge in Incheon.Designing a solution to growing wildfire risksThe international competition brings together student teams from more than 190 countries to work on major environmental and technology problems. This year's challenge focuses on preventing, controlling and recovering from wildfires in a warming world. For the competition, the Folkestone students designed an autonomous vehicle with long, folding arms that can clear paths up to five metres wide through dry vegetation. The system removes plants and other surface material that can fuel a fire, creating natural firebreaks that can slow the spread of flames without putting firefighters d...