Design and Research of Small Crawler Fire

Fighting Robot
Ji-shun Li
Ya-zhou Jia Nan Guo
Henan Key Laboratory for Machinery
School of Mechatronics Engineering Henan Key Laboratory for Machinery
Design and Transmission System
Henan University of Science and Design and Transmission System
Henan University of Science and
Technology Henan University of Science and
Technology
Luoyang, China Technology
Luoyang, China
[email protected] Luoyang, China
[email protected]
[email protected]
Qi-su Jia Bo-feng DU Chang-ye CHEN
CITIC Heavy Industries Co., Ltd School of Mechatronics Engineering School of Mechatronics Engineering
Luoyang, China Henan University of Science and Henan University of Science and
[email protected] Technology Technology
Luoyang, China Luoyang, China
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—In view of the special working conditions and fighting robots can be equipped with fire-fighting water
personal safety of firefighters in public places, houses and cannon, fire-extinguishing sprinklers and other fire-fighting
other fire scenes, the virtual prototype technology was used to equipment, as well as cameras and sensors, to replace fire-
conduct in-depth research on small crawler fire-fighting fighting personnel to enter the scene of dangerous disasters
robots. The overall design scheme of the fire-fighting robot is and accidents for fire detection, detection of chemical
proposed, and the independent suspension system with good dangerous substances, fire extinguishing, cooling, opening
shock absorption performance is designed. The explosion-proof and closing valves, moving goods, plugging leakage and
waterproof shell of the special fire-fighting robot is developed, other operations, which can effectively solve the problems of
which realizes the accurate detection of the temperature and
personal safety and insufficient data collection faced by fire-
dangerous objects of the fire scene by the vision and
fighting personnel in the above-mentioned places. On the
temperature identification of the fire-fighting robot. Research
shows that the small crawler fire-fighting robot has high basis of the feedback results, on-site commanders can make
detection intelligence and structural reliability, which is of scientific judgments on the disaster situation in time and
great significance to the fire-fighting operations. make correct and reasonable decisions on the disaster rescue
work. Therefore, fire fighting robots can play a decisive role
Keywords—crawler, fire-fighting, robot, shock absorption in fire fighting and emergency rescue.
In the research and development of special fire-fighting
I. INTRODUCTION robots, the United States and the former Soviet Union carried
With the development of social economy and the out research in this area earlier, and then the United
advancement of industry, various petrochemical enterprises Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, China and other
are increasing, and the number of various inflammable and countries also began to study such technologies[1-6]. At
explosive chemical dangerous goods is also increasing, present, the practical fire rescue robot with different
resulting in a significant increase in the probability of fire functions is in the initial stage of research and development,
accidents. As a result, the importance of fire fighting robots and has not yet been used on a large scale. For the first time,
is becoming more and more obvious. When a fire accident the Tokyo Fire Department used the "Rainbow 5" robot to
occurs, the harsh environment such as high temperature, extinguish the fire; the Thermite RS-T2 series commercial
dust, toxic gases and smoke poses a great threat to the safety fire extinguishing robot developed by Howe and Howe, USA,
of the firefighters. If the firefighters rush into the scene of the has a crawler design, is smoke-resistant, and can work in
accident to carry out rescue, they cannot complete the task, harsh environments.
but also increase casualties. Many universities and research institutes in China are
The fire fighting robot belongs to the category of the also engaged in the research on fire-fighting robots.
special robots. It has the functions of climbing, wading, However, there is still a big gap between domestic fire-
obstacle crossing, high temperature resistance and heat fighting robots and developed countries in wireless remote
radiation resistance, rainproof, explosion proof, chemical control technology, visual inspection technology and other
corrosion prevention, electromagnetic interference aspects. And there are not serialized products, so the function
prevention, remote walking and self-defense functions. In the is relatively single. Most of them do not have explosion-
face of various dangerous and complex environments such as proof function.
high temperature, toxic, anoxic and heavy smoke, the fire-

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 II. OVERALL DESIGN OF FIRE-FIGHTING ROBOT 3

A. Requirements for fire robot operation 1

The fire-fighting robots are mainly used in various fire- 4

fighting rescues such as oil, gas, gas leaks, explosions,
tunnels, subway collapses, etc. Therefore, for the harsh
working environment such as high temperature, corrosion, 2
dust, smoke, etc., the body design of the fire-fighting robot is
required to have high adaptability. For the complex ground
conditions at the scene of the fire and the large recoil force
during the water spray operation, the traveling mechanism
and the body structure of the fire-fighting robot are required 5
to have functions such as climbing, obstacles, steering, etc.,
and the stability requirements are high. For the detailed
investigation of the accident scene, the fire-fighting robot is 1-Fire water cannon;2- Explosion-proof shell;3- Video camera;
required to be equipped with a visual monitoring system to 4- Lifting platform;5- Track walking mechanism
provide reliable information in real time. For different types
of the fire rescue, it is necessary for the fire-fighting robot to Fig.2.The total plan design of the fire-fighting robot
replace the appropriate type of water gun conveniently, but
also need to have a self-spraying device to cool the robot. III. DESIGN OF THE FIRE FIGHTING ROBOT
For receiving high-quality feedback images of the scene, the
wireless telemetry control terminal is required to have a long A. Mechanical system design of the fire fighting robot
communication distance and strong anti-interference ability. body
The body of the fire fighting robot is the core component
B. Overall design plan of the fire fighting robot of the robot and also the installation base of other systems[7].
The fire-fighting robot is mainly composed of the body For petrochemical, gas and other special environments that
mechanical system, the carrying system and the control are flammable and explosive, robots are required to have
system. Among them, the robot body mainly consists of the explosion-proof and waterproof functions. Therefore, the
explosion-proof shell, the walking device, the shock absorber main box of the fire-fighting robot adopts a explosion-proof
and the auxiliary mechanical device. The carrying system shell, and all the components that need to be flameproof,
mainly includes the water gun device and the on-line such as driving motor, reducer and battery, are installed in
monitoring device, and the control system is mainly the the explosion-proof shell.
remote control device. The hardware composition of the fire- The walking mechanism of robot mainly includes wheel
fighting robot is shown in Figure 1. type, leg type, wheel leg compound type and crawler
type[8].The advantage of the crawler type walking
Fire water cannon Visual inspection device mechanism is that the landing area is larger than that of the
wheel type, so the landing pressure is smaller, and the
adhesion between the crawler and the road surface is
stronger, so the driving force provided by the crawler is
larger[9].Since the environment faced by the fire-fighting
Robot body robot is very complicated and the ground conditions of the
fire scene are also relatively variable, the crawler-type
traveling mechanism is more conducive to the movement of
the fire-fighting robot. Moreover, when performing sprinkler
Remote control box operations, the robot will be subjected to a relatively large
recoil, and the crawler structure is more conducive to the
stability of the work. In order to achieve greater moving
speed, rubber track is adopted, so that the fire-fighting robot
Fig.1. Hardware composition of the fire-fighting robot can reach the designated position more quickly and carry out
Rubber crawler walking device is used on both sides of rescue, minimizing casualties and property losses.
the robot body. Water gun device is installed on the front end According to the requirements of oil, gas, gas leak,
of the robot body and water pipe is connected on the back explosion, tunnel, subway collapse and other fire rescues on
end. The visual inspection device is installed on the elevator, the robot's walking ability and obstacle-resistance
which can collect information more accurately for different performance, an independent suspension system with good
heights of fire scene. Inside the explosion-proof housing of damping performance is designed to protect the robot body
the fire-fighting robot, there are drive motors, reducers, from direct impact in the course of traveling, and to ensure
battery components and electrical control components. The that the robot has higher stability and reliability in the course
total plan design of the fire-fighting robot is shown in Figure of operation.
2.

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 Figure 3 is the schematic diagram of the walking device also different. In order to collect the information on site more
for the fire-fighting robot. The damping system adopts an accurately, an explosion-proof lifting device is designed. The
independent spring suspension structure, the connecting seat camera is installed on the lifting platform to realize the
of the shock absorber is fixed on the box body, one end of change of shooting height and improve the intelligence and
the shock absorber is fixed on the connecting seat, and the practicality of the fire-fighting robot. The structure of the
other end is connected on the front wheel frame or the load- explosion-proof lifting device is shown in Figure 4.
bearing connecting rod. The walking device is in the form of
rear wheel drive, the bottom is three load-bearing wheels,
and the upper part has two tightening wheels

4
1

2
5

1- Damping spring;2- Guide wheel;3- Load-bearing wheel;

4- Tensioning wheel;5- Driving wheel
Fig.4. The structure of explosion-proof lifting device
Fig.3. The walking device
C. Design of remote control device
B. Design of fire-fighting robot carrying system The remote control device is the command center and
Fire water cannon is the core device in the process of fire control core of the fire-fighting robot, which is mainly
fighting and rescue operation. The material of the gun body composed of data processor, wireless terminal, display and
is made of 304 stainless steel, and the gun head is made of operation Panel .The data processor is the core of the control
aluminum alloy. The fire water cannon has two rotational terminal and is responsible for the processing of data and
degrees of freedom, which can be rotated in both horizontal control instructions. Manipulators send instructions to the
and vertical directions to achieve a change in the spray angle. robot through the control panel, which can remotely control
According to the high temperature environment in which the the robot's movement, information collection and fire
fire fighting robot is working, the double-layer water curtain extinguishing. According to the situation of the fire scene,
self-spraying and cooling device is used to effectively cool the firefighters also can adjust the water spray angle through
the fire-fighting robot itself to ensure the high adaptability of the control platform. The visual monitoring system can help
the robot in the special environment. During the fire-fighting workers get the environment around the fire scene.At the
and rescue, the fire-fighting robot has to drag the fire hose to same time, the robot can collect various information from the
move in the course of walking, which requires a higher load fire scene which can be transmitted to the control terminal to
capacity. Therefore, high-power drive device is selected in help operators to operate scientifically and reasonably.
the design and assembled in the interior of the explosion-
proof shell. The power supply unit uses high energy density IV. CONCLUSION
lithium battery, which can be charged and exchanged for
Based on the characteristics of the disaster scenes in
sudden fire.
cities, this paper has developed a kind of fire-fighting robot
With the development of computer science and automatic that adapts to harsh environments such as high temperature,
control technology, the visual monitoring system of the fire- corrosion, dust, smoke, etc. It can replace firefighters into the
fighting robots has received more and more attention and fire scene for investigation and the fire-fighting tasks. And
become an indispensable subsystem[10]. When the fire the fire-fighting robot has high reliability. The following
occurs, the situation at the scene of the fire is more complex, conclusions are drawn:
if the firefighters rush into the scene to carry out rescue, the
• Aiming at the obstacle-surmounting problem of
danger is very great. However, the fire-fighting robot
small crawler fire-fighting robot during walking, an
equipped with the monitoring system can replace the
independent spring suspension system with good
firefighters to detect the gas, temperature, dangerous objects,
damping performance is designed to protect the
obstacles and other situations at the scene of the fire, and
robot from direct impact during the walking process,
then transmit the video image of the scene to the remote
which ensures the high reliability of the robot during
control system to help the operator take correct measures to
working.
further deal with, thereby reducing the loss of people's lives
and property. The occurrence of fire is often accompanied by • In view of the special explosive environment such as
the generation of heavy smoke, which will cause petrochemical and gas, the explosion-proof and
inconvenience to the detection of fire-fighting robots, and the waterproof double design technology is adopted to
gas concentrations at different heights of the fire scene are develop the explosion-proof and intrinsically safe

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