On Friday March 7, CARMA project partners had the opportunity to attend a large-scale firefighting exercise organized in the port of Marseille by the Bataillon de marins-pompiers de Marseille (BMPM), one of CARMA’s key operational partners.
The scenario simulated a ship fire emergency, offering valuable insight into the real-life operational challenges faced by firefighters during complex maritime incidents. The event also served as a live environment to assess how such high-risk, dynamic situations interact with robotic systems like Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs).
Observing these coordinated interventions firsthand allowed CARMA partners to further refine the project’s approach to integrating robotics into disaster response workflows. The complexity of maritime environments—limited space, unpredictable fire behavior, and intense coordination—offers critical lessons for designing support technologies that are practical, reliable, and truly helpful to first responders on the ground.
Special thanks to the BMPM for their warm welcome and for conducting such a detailed and well-organized drill.
As CARMA continues to advance its work, close collaboration with operational teams remains key to ensuring that technology development remains anchored in the realities of fieldwork and emergency response.