Autonomous Fire Extinguisher Robot for Building-Wide Coverage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional fire extinguishers are often placed at strategic locations, leaving some areas in buildings disadvantaged and without immediate access, and predicting fire locations is challenging, making it difficult to ensure fire extinguishers are present when needed.
Innovation Solution
A robotic device equipped with sensors, a processor, and expandable mecanum wheels that can autonomously navigate and map its environment to reach fires, providing fire extinguishing capabilities where needed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If more fire extinguishers are placed throughout a building, then fire safety coverage is improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the static fire extinguisher system into a dynamic mobile robot that can autonomously navigate to fire locations. The robot uses sensors (cameras, LIDAR, temperature sensors) to detect fires and autonomously moves to the detected location using path planning algorithms, replacing the need for multiple stationary extinguishers with a single mobile unit that can dynamically position itself where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile robot is equipped with autonomous navigation capabilities including fire detection sensors, environment mapping, path planning, and self-propulsion. The system independently detects fires, determines optimal paths, navigates to fire locations, and executes extinguishing operations without human intervention, making the fire safety system self-sufficient and eliminating the need for manual placement of multiple extinguishers.
2Ease of operation
If fire extinguishers are placed at central locations for easy access, then accessibility is improved, but coverage of distant areas deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces stationary central fire extinguishers with a mobile robot that dynamically moves throughout the building. The robot uses autonomous navigation, environment mapping, and path planning to reach distant areas that would be inaccessible to centrally placed stationary extinguishers, while maintaining ease of operation through automated fire detection and response.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional placement problem (positioning extinguishers on walls or floors) to a three-dimensional mobile system that can navigate through space. The robot moves freely in three-dimensional space, accessing areas behind obstacles, through corridors, and to locations that would be difficult or impossible to reach with traditional stationary placement, dramatically expanding coverage area.
3Quantity of substance
If fire extinguishers are positioned at strategic locations, then cost is reduced, but response time to unpredictable fire locations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile robot autonomously detects fires using temperature sensors, cameras, and other detection devices, then independently calculates optimal paths using path planning algorithms and navigates to the fire location. This self-service capability eliminates the time delay associated with manual discovery and response, allowing the single robot to respond quickly to unpredictable fire locations without requiring multiple pre-positioned extinguishers.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the environment using sensors that detect temperature changes, smoke, and other fire indicators. When a fire is detected, the feedback loop triggers autonomous navigation to the specific location, allowing the robot to respond dynamically to unpredictable fire occurrences. The real-time feedback from sensors enables rapid response time despite using only a single mobile unit rather than multiple stationary ones.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a robotic device, including: a chassis; a set of wheels; a control system; a battery; one or more sensors; a processor; a tangible, non-transitory, machine readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor effectuates operations including: capturing, with the one or more sensors, data of an environment of the robotic device and data indicative of movement of the robotic device; generating or updating, with the processor, a map of the environment based on at least a portion of the captured data; and generating or updating, with the processor, a movement path of the robotic device.