The robot is mainly tasked with allowing human firefighters to plan how to tackle the situation.
We have seen robots perform many tasks. Now, the potential of robots is to be utilised for firefighting. In areas or regions not accessible for human firefighters, the services of robots could be utilised, avoiding life-threatening risks to humans.
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid based researchers invented a mobile autonomous ground robot to help firefighters in emergency situations, especially indoor scenarios, according to the Journal of Field Robotics.
The robot is mainly tasked with allowing human firefighters to plan how to tackle the situation and also to make safer paths for them, especially during evacuation scenarios.
The invention is aimed at curbing accident rates in a project titled HelpResponder. Fixed beacons and drones are also part of the team assisting ground robots. Their main task is to get real-time environmental parameters.
Robot deployed to monitor and share data with firefighters
The move is in the aftermath of the fires that engulfed many parts of Spain. The initial mission was to collate data on various accidents, in which human responders were affected during such tasks, mainly indoors. Researchers also collected data on the spread of diseases on human respondents probably after inhaling gases in fire-fighting scenarios.
That is how the researchers, based on stats collected by them, came to the conclusion that the respondents need to study data on the scenario before embarking on rescue missions, including the presence of toxic gases, said a report.
So it is deployed to monitor and share the data with firefighters, a task mainly done using sensors measuring heat as well as the quality of air and humidity. The firefighters can easily access data through a smart phone app.
The scientists created three operational modes visualising various fire-fighting scenarios, including a manual mode that assists an operator to control it. The controlling part can be done using joysticks, joypads or a keyboard. The control can be managed via a direct view or through also a graphical interface.
It can create the map of the accident scene and photographic images, making the task of respondents less cumbersome.
The robot has components that come cheap
The autonomous mode allows the robot to explore the scene on its own. The third mode is aptly named evacuation mode, which envisages the shortest and safest approach route to the target destination.
The major achievement is that this robot is small and the components to make it are cheap, according to the researchers. The researchers have conducted a string of tests – including simulated scenarios and real-time deployment – and it results have been extremely positive.
