Firefighting robot uses 3D imaging to help rescuers find victims

Firefighters responding to a fire emergency may be getting some extra help from robots. We’ve heard about humanoid firefighting robots helping out with ship fires before, but this one is a bit smaller and has some pretty cool capabilities that could help first responders  get a clear picture of the inside of flame-engulfed building.

A team of engineers from the Coordinated Robotics Lab at the University of California, San Diego has been working on a robot that can arrive at the scene of a fire and create a 3D map of the dangers within the scene.

The firefighting robot that can map out fires. (Image via Jacobs School of Engineering)
The robot contains a small infrared camera and on-board mapping software that converts images taken by the camera into a 3D map. It even records temperature data.

First responders can send in the robots to photograph the inside of a burning building using stereo vision with their stereo RGB camera. The swarm of firefighting robots can use sensors to collect details about the state of the fire such as temperature, dangerous gases, and strength of the structure.

With a few of them working together, they can give firefighters a pretty accurate virtual reality picture of a building’s interior.

The dynamics and control team led by Thomas Bewley, professor of mechanical engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, has already built a prototype of the robot, which is similar to a “Segway-like” vehicle that can climb stairs.

“Firefighters arriving at the scene of a fire have 1,000 things to do. To be useful, the robotic scouts need to work like well-trained hunting dogs, dispatching quickly and working together to achieve complex goals while making all necessary low-level decisions themselves along the way to get the job done,” said Bewley.

In order for the team to bring the concept to reality, other groups contributed to various aspects of the robot’s functions such as the software that enables the robot to map out smoky spaces, the “electronic nose” that allows it to sniff out volatile compounds, and its human interfacing abilities.

Hopefully these robots will be helping out firefighters soon. The team has applied for funding from the National Science Foundation Robotics Institute to further develop these robots.

Check out the team’s video below to see how the robot can help rescuers in a fire.