Design and Implementation of a Multiple Sensors Based Affordable Autonomous Firefighting Robot for Fire Management

Abstract

In critical fire scenarios, experienced firefighters face significant risks that could be mitigated by employing fully autonomous firefighting robots equipped with multiple sensors. Our paper introduces such a robot, which utilizes flame sensors to detect fires and a pump with a water supply to extinguish them, an ultrasonic sensor enables obstacle avoidance during movement, while a gas sensor and buzzer provide alerts for gas leaks. The robot's mobility is ensured by wheel-attached gear motors connected through a motor driver, with all functionalities simultaneously controlled by an Arduino UNO R3 microcon-troller board. A key challenge was maintaining the overall cost of the basic prototype as low as possible, at approximately 25 USD. Our results demonstrate that the microcontroller board efficiently manages all these functionalities, swiftly detecting and extinguishing fires within the test environment, even in the presence of obstacles. The system detects fires within an average of 3 seconds and extinguishes them within 0–15 seconds, depending on the flame size. It also exhibits obstacle detection and avoidance capabilities with an average accuracy of 80–90 % in the test environment, ensuring precise navigation to the fire source and unobstructed fire suppression. Additionally, it promptly identifies gas leaks and activates the alarm system, outperforming many existing robots at this scale.