Scientists develop a bloodhound robot for firefighters

Researchers from the University of California at San Diego have developed a prototype two-wheeled robot for reconnaissance and search for people during a fire. It is assumed that the robot will be inexpensive, fast and easy to use, in addition, like a series of experienced hunting dogs, several robots will be able to jointly examine the burning building, in a matter of minutes making a three-dimensional map of the premises and finding people blocked in the building by a fire.

The robot resembles a Segway electric scooter, but in contrast, it can overcome stairs and fairly high obstacles. This is achieved by a simple and elegant engineering solution: the “body” of the robot is a flat board that can move up and down relative to the chassis. Advancing, the lower end of this board lifts the robot chassis into the air, and in order to maintain balance, the robot balances the wheels using them as power gyroscopes. As soon as the wheels rise to the desired height, the robot leans against an obstacle and pulls the “body” up.

The robot is oriented in space and makes a map of the room using one infrared and two ordinary video cameras forming a stereo pair. In addition, an “electronic nose” is being developed for him, which will determine the presence of hazardous substances in the air.



Orientation in a smoky burning building is one of the key problems on which people's lives depend on the successful solution. In September last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created a system for automatically building floor plans for firefighters based on a laser rangefinder and a Kinect camera. The sensors of the system are mounted on the chest of the fireman, and information from them flows to the central server, which builds a map of the premises. This greatly facilitates the work of firefighters, but they still risk their lives by going into parts of the building that have not yet been explored. If you shift this work to robots, the risk will be much less.

The robot featured in the video is just an early prototype. Scientists expect to present the final version at an international conferenceon robotics and automation, which will be held next June in Hong Kong. In addition to improving the mechanical part, work is underway to improve recognition algorithms and build 3D models in smoky and littered with debris rooms and the effective joint work of several robots at the same time, based on the principles of group robotics .