Autonomous Ground Robot Helps Firefighters in Enclosed Spaces

Note the number of integrated sensors

Autonomous Ground Robot Helps Firefighters in Enclosed Spaces

Interesting Engineering

By Nergis Firtina, February 21, 2023

Researchers at Spain's Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid developed an autonomous ground robot to help firefighters plan safe access routes to affected areas of a building and assist with evacuations. The robot is equipped with sensors to collect temperature, humidity, and air quality data and to identify its position and those of other objects. That data is stored in a database accessible through a smartphone app. Researcher Noelia Fernández Talavera said the robot’s evacuation mode "uses the prior knowledge of the scene to compute the shortest path from the current position to the target one. This target position can be the exit of the building or the location of a victim, among other things." ... ' 

Machine Learning and Firefighting Tech

Contributed to firefighting tech, here a novel application:

 ML-Based Solution Could Help Firefighters Circumvent Deadly Backdrafts

U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology

October 17, 2022

Scientists at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology have formulated a machine learning-based model to predict potentially deadly backdrafts. The researchers based the model on data from hundreds of laboratory-engineered backdrafts, with the hope firefighters will deploy it to avoid or adjust to hazardous circumstances. The team initially fed the model data on gas levels, fuel richness, and temperature measured at one location in the lab chamber before a door was opened, to calculate the odds of a backdraft occurring. The model predicted backdrafts correctly in 70.8% of the experiments; adding measurements at a second location boosted its accuracy to 82.4%.  .... '

AI Will Come to the Rescue of Future Firefighters

Worked on the application of data to firefighting teams in my early days, appreciated this clearly can be further leverage by using AI methods. 

AI May Come to the Rescue of Future Firefighters

By NIST News, August 12, 2022

NIST firefighters douse flames bursting from a building as a flashover occurs during an experiment. ....

A new artificial intelligence model from researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology and Hong Kong Polytechnic University could warn firefighters of imminent combustion or flashovers.  The Flashover Prediction Neural Network (FlashNet) model can predict flashovers as early as 30 seconds before eruption, with up to 92.1% accuracy.

The researchers used graph neural networks to strengthen FlashNet and trained it on nearly 25,000 fire cases, then used another 16,000 for refinement and final testing.  In digital simulations of over 41,000 fires in 17 types of buildings representing common U.S. residential floorplans, FlashNet outperformed five other machine learning-based models.

From NIST News

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Autonomous Firefighting Robots

Recall a project about firefighting process I consulted on a number of yrs ago.  It was to early to suggest general automation then, but we had indications this was being looked at. 

Firefighting Robots Go Autonomous, By Scientific American, October 29, 2021  in CACM

The tradition-bound firefighting profession is poised for an influx of eccentric assistants. They range from contraptions the size of a toy wagon to two-ton beasts that resemble military tanks and can blast out 2,500 gallons of water per minute. Some move on rubber tires, some on steel tracks, and some fly. All are robots.

The high-tech devices can enter burning buildings too hot for human survival. They can penetrate smoke too toxic for human lungs. They are often faster, stronger, and more agile than the firefighters they work with. Most of the machines currently in use are remote-controlled, but researchers are now developing "intelligent" firefighting robots that can make decisions autonomously.

Researchers are working to change institutional reluctance to invest in devices tailored to meet varying niche needs.

From Scientific American Full Article