Portable fire evacuation guide robot system

Robot technology is emerging for applications in disaster prevention with devices such as fire-fighting robots, rescue robots, and surveillance robots. In this paper, we suggest an portable fire evacuation guide robot system that can be thrown into a fire site to gather environmental information, search displaced people, and evacuate them from the fire site. This spool-like small and light mobile robot can be easily carried and remotely controlled by means of a laptop-sized tele-operator. It contains the following functional units: a camera to capture the fire site; sensors to gather temperature data, CO gas, and O₂ concentrations; and a microphone with speaker for emergency voice communications between firefighter and victims. The robot´s design gives its high-temperature protection, excellent waterproofing, and high impact resistance. Laboratory tests were performed for evaluating the performance of the proposed evacuation guide robot system.