Autonomous Fire Extinguisher Navigation for Building-Wide Coverage
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional fire extinguishers are often placed at strategic locations, leaving some areas in buildings disadvantaged and far from access, and predicting fire locations is unpredictable, making it difficult to ensure fire extinguishers are available when needed.
Innovation Solution
A robotic device equipped with wheels, sensors, and a processor that maps its environment, allowing it to autonomously navigate and locate itself within a building, and move towards a fire upon detection, equipped with a fire extinguishing mechanism.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If fire extinguishers are placed at strategic locations, then accessibility is improved, but coverage of all areas deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The fire extinguisher system transitions from static placement to dynamic mobility. The robotic platform can autonomously navigate to different locations within the building, adapting its position based on fire detection. This resolves the contradiction by making the extinguisher both accessible (when needed) and universally coverable (by moving to any location).
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs autonomous navigation and self-positioning capabilities. The robotic platform independently travels to fire locations without human intervention, using sensors to detect fires and navigate autonomously. This self-service capability enables the single extinguisher to serve multiple locations effectively.
2Adaptability or versatility
If more fire extinguishers are placed throughout a building, then coverage is improved, but cost deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
A single robotic fire extinguisher platform performs the function of multiple stationary extinguishers by autonomously traveling to different fire locations. The system universalizes the fire suppression capability across the entire building footprint, eliminating the need for multiple expensive extinguisher units while maintaining comprehensive coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates virtual copies of the fire extinguisher's presence throughout the building through autonomous navigation. Rather than deploying physical copies at every location, the single robotic unit replicates the fire suppression function across multiple locations sequentially, reducing overall system cost.
3Ease of operation
If fire extinguishers are placed at predictable locations, then accessibility is improved, but responsiveness to unpredictable fires deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates sensor-based fire detection that provides real-time feedback about fire locations. This feedback loop enables the robotic platform to dynamically adjust its navigation and position itself at the actual fire location, making the system responsive to unpredictable fire occurrences while maintaining ease of operation through automated response.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic platform is pre-positioned and ready for deployment, with navigation systems pre-configured to respond to fire detections. This preliminary preparation enables rapid response to unpredictable fires without requiring pre-planned location strategies, as the system is already prepared to autonomously navigate to any fire location.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is provide 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; inferring, with the one or more processors of the robotic device, a current location of the robotic device, and generating or updating, with the processor, a movement path of the robotic device based on at least the map of the environment, at least a portion of the captured data, and the inferred current location of the robotic device.