Design And Construction Of A Fire Fighting Robot

ABSTRACT

Fire-fighting is an important but dangerous occupation. A fire-fighter must be able to reach the situation quickly and safely extinguish the fire, preventing further damage and reduce fatalities. Technology has come to rescue this issue, firefighters and machines are now having more efficient and effective method of firefighting. This paper gives you the design idea of firefighting robot using autonomous operation. The robotic vehicle is loaded with fire extinguisher and a water pump which is controlled over solenoid valve to throw water. An Arduino UNO is a microcontroller is used for the desired operation. A water tank and fire extinguisher setup along with water pump is mounted on the robot body and its operation is carried out from the microcontroller output through appropriate signal from the sensor. The whole operation is controlled by an Arduino UNO microcontroller.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWELDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION
• BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM OF THE PROJECT
• SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
• APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT
• METHODOLOGY
• PROJECT ORGANISATION

CHAPTER TWO

2.0      LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1      HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
2.2     REVIEW OF AUTOMATIC FIRE EMERGENCY

2.3    REVIEW OF TYPES OF FIRE ALARM SYSTEM

2.4    REVIEW OF FIRE ALARM DESIGN

2.5    REVIEW OF FIRE ALARM PARTS

2.6    REVIEW OF FIRE ALARM INITIATING DEVICES

2.7    FIRE ALARM NOTIFICATION APPLIANCES

CHAPTER THREE

3.0      METHODOLOGY

3.1      SYSTEM BLOCK DIAGRAM

3.2      FABRICATION OF MECHANICAL COMPONENTS

3.3      CONTROL AND SENSOR UNIT

3.4      WORKING PRINCIPLE

3.5      HARDWARE  DESCRPTION

3.6      SOFTWARE USED

3.7      PROGRAM CODE

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULT ANALYSIS

4.0      RESULT ANALYSIS

4.1      STUDY OF PERFORMANCE

4.2      RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0      CONCLUSION

5.1      RECOMMENDATION

5.2      REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                      INTRODUCTION

1.1                                       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Most of the fire accidents occurring in industries like nuclear power plants, petroleum refineries, gas tanks, chemical factories and other large-scale fire industries resulting in quite serious consequences. Fire-fighting is an important but dangerous occupation. A fire-fighter must be able to get to a fire quickly and safely extinguish the fire, preventing further damage and reduce fatalities. Technology has finally bridged the gap between fire fighting and machines allowing for a more efficient and effective method of fire fighting. Robots designed to find a fire, before it rages out of control, could one day work with fire fighters greatly reducing the risk of injury to victims. Our world is currently facing the global warming whereby the average temperature of our earth atmosphere and oceans is increasing year by year. Studies shows that our earth mean surface temperature has increased about 0.8C which about two-third of increase occurring since 1980. The global warming of the earth may lead to more forest fire and fire disaster occur as everything gets more flammable due to the high temperature of our earth atmosphere. Therefore, fire extinguishing robot is needed to reduce all the damage cause by natural or human made fire disaster.

With the advancement in the field of Robotics, human intervention is becoming less every day and robots are used widely for purpose of safety. This project integrates auto technology for autonomous operation and uses Arduino microcontroller.

Sometimes it is almost impossible to intervene in a these situations without the help of robot. Because robot has some size and sensing advantages that human lacks of. It is not feasible to appoint a person to patrol for accidental fire where a robot can do the patrolling [1]. So a robot is made to patrol for fire detection and early warning in domestic, industrial and  environmental cases [2-5].

This robot may be used in industrial environment and even in household areas where there is more probability of occurring accidental fire [6-8]. Different sensors are used and fusion of their performances is ensured by an intelligent algorithm in Arduino computing platform or by soft computing techniques [9-10]. Su et al. [11] made an automatic fire detection system using Adaptive Fusion Algorithm (AFA). Multisensor Fire Detection System (MSFDS) along  with  Visual  Basic  to  receive  information  was  used  and  a general interface for supervised computer was designed in his study. Viguria et al. [12] built an aerial/ground robot team applied to fire detection. They used a disturbed market based algorithm, called S+T and coordinated in between aerial and ground vehicles. Their simulations showed that if the number of services increased, communication and energy requirement would also increase. Khoon et al. [13] described the development of an Autonomous Fire Fighting Mobile Platform (AFFMP) that is equipped with the basic fighting equipment that can patrol through the hazardous site via a guiding track with the aim of early detection for fire. They used  flame sensor, motor driver circuitry and LDR sensor and kept the extinguishing as simple as possible. For early warning, a vision sensor based fire detection method is proposed by Ko et al. [14]. They developed an AVM classifier for fire pixel verification.

Kim et al. [15] made a portable fire evacuation guide robot system and demonstrated that robot system can be thrown into a fire to gather information, locate displaced people and evacuate them. They designed the robot with aluminum compound metal for thermal resistance with waterproofing and an impact distribution frame for impact resistance. White et al. [16] developed a vehicle mounted fire fighting system and included a series of flame and heat retardant coverings placed on all exposed parts of the system to prevent damage from exposure to extreme heat.

Our effort is to develop an autonomous fire fighter robot which is constructed by locally available fire resistant and water-proof materials and performs on an arduino based fire detection and extinguishment algorithm. The robot is also fabricated so that it can save itself from fire by keeping safe distance from the source. At different distances from the fire and at different day time, the performance of the robot is evaluated by performing sensitivity tests on the sensors taking serial monitor readings in Arduino.

Therefore, Arduino based fire fighting Robot is designed to control fire through a robotic vehicle. The put forward vehicle has a water jet spray which is capable of sprinkling water. The sprinkler can be moved in all four directions. The arrival of new high-speed technology provided realistic opportunity for new robot controls and realization of new methods of control theory. The main controlling devices of the whole system are Microcontrollers, smoke or fire sensor, water jet spray, DC motors and buzzer are interfaced to Microcontroller.

1.2                                       PROBLEM STATEMENT

Detecting fire and extinguishing is a hazardous job for a fire extinguisher, it often risks the life of that person. This project aims in giving a technical solution to the mentioned problem. A robot is a mechanical design that is capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer. The device has a fire extinguishing unit added on to it. This robot is controlled using a smoke sensor its movement and reaching the fire, the flame sensor detects the fire and gives the further signal to the extinguisher units to trigger the pump and spray the water.

1.3                                                   AIM OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this work is to built a robot that is controlled using a smoke sensor. The flame sensor detects the fire and gives the further signal to the extinguisher units to trigger the pump and spray the water.

1.4                                    APPLICATIONS OF THE PROJECT

• It is used in hazardous
• Useful in controlling fire at extreme places where human being cannot reach

1.5                                                 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

Here, a fire fighter robot is fabricated providing extinguishment platform. There is about 1 liter water reserving capacity. An arduino based simple algorithm is used for detection of fire and measurement of distance from fire source while the robot is on its way to extinguish fire. When the fire is detected and the robot is at a distance near to fire, a centrifugal pump is used to throw water for extinguishment purpose. A water spreader is used for effective extinguishing. It is seen that velocity of water is greatly reduced due to the use of water spreader. Two sensors: LM35 and Arduino Flame Sensors are used to detect the fire and distances on its way towards fire. Sensitivity of these sensors at different day times and distances is tested through analog reading of the serial monitor.

1.6                                             RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In the course of carrying this study, numerous sources were used which most of them are by visiting libraries, consulting journal and news papers and online research which Google was the major source that was used.

1.7                                     PROJECT ORGANISATION

The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work,   chapter two presents the literature review of the study,  chapter three describes the methods applied, chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendations.