Autonomous robotic fire detection and extinguishing system

Firefighting is a dangerous job with a high death rate. Robotics is the new way to protect the environment and human lives. This work proposes an autonomous robot system that can inevitably discover fire using the flame sensor and extinguish it. This project includes Arduino UNO, flame sensor, servo motor, motor driver, relay module, Bluetooth HC-06 module, and water pump. Besides, using the push Bluetooth app at the transmitting end, commands are sent to the receiver to control the robot’s movement. The motors are connected to the microcontroller and used to move the robot and sprinkle water on the fire. A water tank and a water pump are mounted on the robot body and automatically detected by the infrared. An ATMEGA328 series microcontroller controls the flame sensor and the whole operation. A motor driver IC, L298N, is interfaced to the microcontroller through which the controller drives the motors. As a result, the robot can detect fire from a distance. The average length for detecting flame is approximately 5.11cm, and Bluetooth transmission is about 300cm. It has the potential to reduce human error and limitations associated with fire extinguishing tasks.

The model relates to an substation inspection robot carrying a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

A kind of substation inspection robot carrying unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) was studied to solve the problems of complex indoor environment of substation, high intensity of manual inspection and low efficiency of traditional inspection method. Using robot mobile platform connected to the robot controller of ontology, the robot controller of ontology through wireless router and background monitoring system for information transmission and according to the background monitoring system control command control robot mobile platform preset in the transformer substation inspection lines and parking. Walking on the robot mobile platform is equipped with the UAV. Wireless information transmission between the UAV and the robot body controller, take-off and landing controlled by the robot body controller and the camera component on the UAV takes pictures of the equipment and instruments of the substation so as to complete the substation inspection work safely and reliably.

Features of slopes overcoming by walking devices

For mobile robots designed to work in extreme conditions, an important characteristic is the value of the overcoming slope. For wheeled and tracked vehicles, the angle of the overcoming slope is limited by the adhesion properties of the soil. The walking device can provide overcoming of higher slopes, since the analogue of the adhesion coefficient for walking machines, with a large footprint track depth, can be significantly greater than 1. The paper discusses the results of experimental studies of the features of overcoming slopes by a walking device in weak soil conditions. When mobile robots overcoming inclines, they may overturn or slide downhill. It is shown that on soft soils the sliding of walking machines downhill is unlikely because of significant deformations of the soil under the support elements. On the other hand, the deformation of the soil worsens the resistance of the walking vehicle to overturning. A method of increasing resistance to overturning by controlling the position of the robot body by separately regulating the conditional clearance of walking mechanisms is considered. The possibility of adjusting the clearance in the propulsion unit on the basis of Umnov-Chebyshev cyclic walking mechanisms is shown. Climbing slopes requires a certain amount of traction. The values of the additional power and the force characteristics of the walking device’s drive necessary for successful overcoming of slopes have been determined. The results of the work can be demand in the development of walking machines and mobile robots. Key words Mobile robots, walking machines, interaction with the ground, traction and coupling properties, overcoming slopes, tipping resistance, mathematical modeling, field tests. Acknowledgements Research was partially supported by RFBR and the Administration of the Volgograd region, research projects no. 19-08-01180 a, 19-48-340007 p_a.

Development and analysis of a bio-inspired wire-driven variable stiffness double spring based tapered multi-section flexible robot

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a tendon actuated variable stiffness double spring based continuously tapered multi-section flexible robot and study its capability to achieve the desired bending and compression for inspection in cluttered environments. Design/methodology/approach Spring-based continuum manipulators get compressed while actuated for bending. This property can be used for the advantage in cluttered environments if one is able to control both bending and compression. Here, this paper uses a mechanics based model to achieve the desired bending and compression. Moreover, this study tries to incorporate the tapered design to help in independent actuation of the distal sections with minimal effects on proximal sections. This study is also trying to incorporate the double spring based design to minimize the number of spacers in the robot body. Findings The model was able to produce desired curvature at the tip section with less than 4.62% error. The positioning error of the manipulator is nearly 3.5% which is at par with the state-of-the-art manipulators for search and rescue operations. It was also found that the use of double spring can effectively reduce the number of spacers required. It can be helpful in smooth robot to outer world interaction without any kink. From the experiments, it has been found that the error of the kinematic model decreases as one moves from high radius of curvature to low radius of curvature. Error is maximum when the radius of curvature is infinity. Practical implications The proposed manipulator can be used for search operations in cluttered environments such as collapsed buildings and maintenance of heavy machineries in industries. Originality/value The novelty of this paper lies in the design and the proposed kinematics inverse kinematics for a spring-based continuously tapered multi-section manipulator.

Increasing the operating depth of an autonomous underwater vehicle using an intelligent magnetic field

<p>Designing and manufacturing a suitable body is one of the most effective factors in increasing the efficiency of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). In fact, increasing the propulsive power of an AUV by reducing the frictional drag on its body and incre asing its maneuverability will positively affect key parts of the AUV’s hardware and software such as control system, sensors, AUV vision, batteries and thrusters. On the other hand, a suitable body should have features such as lightness, underwater vehicl e’s balance, high mechanical strength, and enough space for equipment. Therefore, the design and manufacture of the body requires a lot of analysis in terms of body material, aerodynamic calculations, etc., increases the overall cost. This paper aims to re duce the stress in the body of a Polytetrafluoroethylene ( PTFE ) underwater robot and to increase its operating depth without changing the body’s structure by using fuzzy logic to intelligently controlling the magnetic force generated by the repulsion betwe en the coil and the cylindrical magnet, which saves energy, reduces battery consumption, and increases system performance. The results show that the robot performance depth increases by more than 50% without changing the robot body structure.</p>

Towards the development of a cyber-physical measurement system (CPMS): case study of a bioinspired soft growing robot for remote measurement and monitoring applications

The most effective expression of the 4.0 Era is represented by cyber-physical systems (CPSs). Historically, measurement and monitoring systems (MMSs) have been an essential part of CPSs; however, by introducing the 4.0 enabling technologies into MMSs, a MMS can evolve into a cyber-physical measurement system (CPMS). Starting from this consideration, this work reports a preliminary case study of a CPMS, namely an innovative robotic platform to be used for measurement systems in confined and constrained remote environments. The innovative system is a soft growing robot composed of a robot base, to be placed outside the remote environments and a robot body that accesses the site through growth. A pneumatic actuation mechanism enables the controllable growth of the system through lengthening at its tip, as well as its controllable steering. The system can be endowed with sensors to enable remote measurement and monitoring tasks, or can be used to transport sensors in remote locations. A digital twin of the system is developed for simulation of a practical measurement scenario. The ultimate goal is to achieve a self-adapting, fully autonomous system for remote monitoring operations to be used reliably and safely for the inspection of unknown and/or constrained environments.

Design and Experimental Study of Space Continuous Robots Applied to Space Non-Cooperative Target Capture

Space capture actuators face problems such as insufficient flexibility and electrical components that are vulnerable to extreme space environments. To address these problems, a centralized-driven flexible continuous robot based on a multiple scissor mechanism units is proposed in this study. The continuous robot body is composed of two scissor mechanism units coupled in series, and the base container’s three motors to drive the robot. The two scissor mechanism units ensure a wide range of flexible operations and the light weight of the robot. The centralized drive with three motors not only reduces the number of driving sources, but also ensures temperature control and protection of electrical components in the space environment. The kinematics and dynamics of the robot are analyzed, and the workspace and deformation performance of the robot are verified through experiments. Compared with other continuous robots, the proposed continuous robot retains the characteristics of continuous robots in a wide range of flexible operations. At the same time, the configuration is light and a small number of driving sources are used, which is suitable for extreme temperatures, vacuum, radiation, and strict resource-constrained environments in space.

Dynamic Turning of a Soft Quadruped Robot by Changing Phase Difference

Dynamic locomotion of a quadruped robot emerges from interaction between the robot body and the terrain. When the robot has a soft body, dynamic locomotion can be realized using a simple controller. This study investigates dynamic turning of a soft quadruped robot by changing the phase difference among the legs of the robot. We develop a soft quadruped robot driven by McKibben pneumatic artificial muscles. The phase difference between the hind and fore legs is fixed whereas that between the left and right legs is changed to enable the robot to turn dynamically. Since the robot legs are soft, the contact pattern between the legs and the terrain can be varied adaptively by simply changing the phase difference. Experimental results demonstrate that changes in the phase difference lead to changes in the contact time of the hind legs, and as a result, the soft robot can turn dynamically.