(Published in International Robotics & Automation Journal, 2017)
Introduction
Firefighters extinguish fires to protect lives and to avoid destruction of property and environment. Through extinguishing operation, many firefighters are killed and injured due to the absence of information about hazard building infrastructure. In this paper, we design and implement a prototype robotic system which intends to assist the firefighters in accomplishing their duties, including navigation, rescue, and obtain localization information. In addition, the robotic system will navigate the firefighters through the safest route inside the building where GPS signals are inaccessible.
The system addresses critical challenges firefighters face, including:
- Unknown building layouts
- High-risk environments with extreme temperatures
- Difficulty locating civilians in distress
System Design
The proposed robotic system integrates multiple specialized sensors, servo motors, a central processor, and a wireless communication module to enable data exchange between firefighters and the robotic unit. As illustrated in Figure 1, the system architecture comprises two primary components:
- Robotic Unit
- Performs autonomous navigation using inertial measurement systems and distance sensors, generating real-time environmental maps
- Continuously monitors surroundings through environmental sensing (including temperature measurement)
- Identifies potential casualties via integrated motion detection sensors
- Transmits all collected navigation and sensor data to the command station
- Remote-Control Unit
- Processes incoming sensor data to construct a comprehensive environmental database containing:
- Layout mapping data
- Hazard condition information
- Civilian location coordinates
- Computes optimal safe pathways for firefighter guidance
- Maintains continuous Wi-Fi communication with the robotic unit
- Processes incoming sensor data to construct a comprehensive environmental database containing:
Hardware Implementation
The prototype was built using a Lego EV3 development kit, featuring:
- Infrared Sensor: Obstacle detection during navigation
- Motion Sensor: Civilian presence identification
- Temperature Sensor: Hazardous heat zone mapping
- Sound Sensor: Detection of trapped individuals
Software Implementation
The system was programmed in C# for both units:
- Robotic Unit Code: Controls sensors, motors, and navigation
- Remote Interface: Displays:
- Real-time robot location (black/yellow paths)
- Obstacle positions (blue markers)
- Start/stop points (green/red markers)
- Calculated shortest paths
The system implements a shortest-path algorithm to:
- Determine optimal routes between points
- Avoid detected obstacles
- Guide firefighters efficiently
The travelled route of the robot (remote-control unit).
Conclusion
The main objective of this work was to design, and implement a prototype robotic system, which has the ability to help firefighters in accomplishing their duties, including finding shortest path between two points (entrance and location of injured person), drawing path map with all obstacles found. The prototype system has been implemented using Lego EV3 platform, and C# programming language to implement the code runs on the EV3 platform, and for the application run on the fire-fighter PC. For future works, we aim to use real robotic system which can afford high temperatures, and implement more functionality.
This bachelor’s research project successfully developed a prototype robotic system that:
- Enhances firefighter safety in hazardous environments
- Provides real-time environmental data
- Calculates optimal navigation paths
- Demonstrates the potential of affordable rescue robotics
For complete technical details and experimental results, see the full paper here
