Remote-Controlled Rescue Robot

 

There are many types of natural and man-made disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes, which can weaken buildings and cause collapses. In these emergencies, rescuers are deployed and must act as quickly as possible to locate and assist surviving victims. As a result, rescuers are constantly putting their safety and lives at risk when assisting victims, as the majority of first responder deaths occur while responding to an emergency in a dangerous environment. This is due in part to the need to enter unstable buildings that are about to collapse, or that have already collapsed. These buildings are also potentially filled with toxic gasses, making them even more unsuitable for people to enter. This is where robots are playing an increasingly important role in disaster relief. Our project, the Remote-Controlled Rescue Robot, is a remotely-operated robot capable of entering disaster environments such as structurally fragile or collapsed buildings that are inaccessible or dangerous for human rescuers. The robot is equipped with a thermal camera to detect heat signatures of survivors, a visible light camera to analyze the environment and drive the robot, a gas sensor to detect CO2 levels, and a microphone and speaker to establish two-way audio communication with survivors. The video stream from the two cameras, the data from the gas sensor, and audio communication, is sent via WiFi to a web page. From this web page, rescuers will be able to control the robot to navigate through the structure, be able to view all data from the cameras and gas sensor, and have two-way audio communication with survivors. It is our intention to offer this product at a much lower cost and offer much higher availability than other rescue robots currently available, which are largely for private military/governmental use. This opens up the market for such devices considerably: suddenly, these devices are accessible to private individuals, or those in impoverished or war torn areas who could see a real life benefit to having access to such a device.