Robotics is an emerging technology in the field of mechatronics. The robotic systems have reduced human efforts to do any work (Hidayatullah et al., 2017). It is also used for various purposes, where a number of works are intensive or dangerous and sometimes to work in the inaccessible environments (Bahrudin et al., 2013). The fire extinguisher is the oldest way to extinguish fire, which requires a human being to control it. In industries, there are various possibilities of catching fire that leads to huge damage (Rakib and Sarkar, 2016). But with the design of this robot, both the property and people can be saved at a very high rate. It will also minimize the air pollution. The firefighting robot will search for the place that has caught fire and with the help of extinguisher, it extinguishes the fire and returns back to its position (Miller and Nourbakhsh, 2016).

In this paper, the authors have proposed a prototype based on Arduino to autonomously detect and extinguish fire. The simulation of this robot is based on various steps, such as initialization of robot, navigation, control the fire extinguishers to extinguish it, and moving back it to its original position.

Reinhart V. Khandwala (2003) had proposed a method to control fire, using the fire-fighting robot. In this model, a sensor was used to sense the fire and navigate robot towards it (Sowah et al., 2014). Lynette Miller Daniel Rodriguez (2003) have proposed a design prototype “firefighting robot”, which contains Light Emitting Diode (LED) to indicate the fire status. In this paper, all the components used are described in detail. This project was based on the line following conditions (Hardey et al., 2012). Shah et al. (2013) have been proposed a firefighting robot along with path guide in the normal mode of operation. Due to this work, the human efforts were reduced (Azmil et al., 2015).

In this design, different types of hardware are used to design and simulate the model. These include Arduino, relay, and fire extinguisher. The extinguisher is used along with a electronic valve. While detecting fire, this robot it moves towards the fire and stops around 30-35 cm away from it and the extinguisher’s power is turned ON (Dey et al., 2015).

The operation of the motor is based on electromagnetism. The internal configuration of the DC motor works on the principle based on the conductor carrying current and the applied magnetic field. These two parameters are used to produce rotational motion (Barros and Lages, 2012). A DC motor is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. DC Motor

It is an electrical component which is used for switching purpose. It is composed of an electromagnet, an armature, a spring, and an electrical contacts set. It is a switch operated by electric current, and these electric current are capable of generating large current and by releasing the armature contact, the device gets ON or OFF. The major use of the relay is to control multiple devices at a time (Prasanna and Prasad, 2013). The Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT) relay is shown in Figure 2 and its pinout diagram is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2. SPDT Relay

Figure 3. Pinout of Relay

It is an open source hardware and software-based module which consists of various digital pins, analog pins, DC voltage, Serial monitoring, etc. Nowadays, this board is used to design various electronics projects since in a small module, various devices are embedded. The heart of this module is microcontroller 328p in which all programs are stored so that each project can run (Shah et al., 2013). The Arduino UNO used in this paper is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Arduino

The motor is used to run DC motor as well as other types of the motor in a smooth way. For DC motor, this driver is used to control the direction of movement of the motor. It is a type of current amplifier which accepts a small amount of current and converts this current into the large current. The motor driver used in this work is dual bridge integrated circuit (Saravanan, 2015). Using this driver, two motors can be controlled at a time. Pinout configuration is shown in Figure 5 and L293D motor driver module is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 5. Pin Configuration of L293D IC

Figure 6. Motor Driver (L293D Module)

This sensor is very sensitive towards fire. It can also detect ordinary light, and is mostly used in fire alarm system. Its functioning range is between 760 nm to 1100 nm. The detection is about 60 degrees, and particularly more sensitive to the flame operation. The infrared receiver used in this paper to sense fire is shown in Figure 7. IR receivers are used as fire detection sensors in the circuit (Kadam et al., 2018). The circuit diagram of the fire sensor is shown in Figure 8.

Figure 7. IR Receiver

Figure 8. IR Receiver (Fire Detection Sensor)

The proposed work can be used in various concepts for different branches, such as mechanical, electronics, electrical, and pneumatic systems. The block diagrams of the proposed work are shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Block Diagram of Proposed Work

The working of this system starts from fire sensor. This sensor initially senses the fire and accordingly starts to move in the direction. Once the level of fire or heat increases, the robot will go on in that direction only. When the robot reaches about 1 meter to 2 meters, the robot stops and starts extinguishing the fire using a fire extinguisher. The signal received by the flame is very low and by passing it to the signal conditioning, the strength of the signals are increased. These signal units will pass on the signal to the Arduino board.

The workflow of the proposed work is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10. Algorithm of the Proposed Work

This work deals with the design of a robot which can easily fight with fire both indoor and outdoor. The steps are given as follows.

Step 1: Initially the sensor is activated.

Step 2: The sensor senses signals in all the directions, i.e. left right and front.

Step 3: Once the direction of fire is detected, the robot move towards that direction.

Step 4: The robot reaches near fire upto a specific range and stops.

Step 5: The robot will start extinguishing fire from a nearby distance.

Step 6: Once fire is extinguished, the robot moves back to its original position.

In the development of fire fighting robot, challenges were accepted to find it suitable to setup to teach students of many aspects in the design of the real time embedded system. 30 robot requires large degree of autonomy for the navigation mapping and the localisation task. Mobile Robotics are designed for teaching purposes so that they can be aware with the target application used in this system (Engin, 2016). The design characteristics consist of simple as well as Complex design techniques. It allows the students who deals with various concepts, such as audio, video, sensors, etc. It consists of main requirements such as its low costs, consumption of energy, and its performance. It needs flexibility and programmability.

Two identical wires of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) layout FR4 are used in the design of the chassis of this work. This PCB layout are in octagonal shape. The first layer is used for motion control and the second layer is dedicated to sense flame or heat. The signals that will enable the microcontroller to activate this robot is 3.3-5.0 V. Aproximity sensor must be able to detect walls at least 10 cm away. The ultrasonic sensors used in this design should have at least 180 degree. The direct current are not enough to control the DC motors more accurately so the motor driver circuit is used to control the DC motors so that proper current can flow through the circuit to make them work properly. It has been observed in the design of this work that it is not practical to design a robot to extinguish large fire just by simply blowing out since air contains oxygen. This method is about fanning the fire. The fire fighting robot of this case study is shown in Figures 11 and 12, which shows the case study block diagram and hardware implementation, respectively.

Figure 11. Case Study Block Diagram

Figure 12. Actual Hardware Implementation

This robot will help in the protection of house, office and other places like malls, shops, etc., from the fire.

In this paper, the proposed work is achieved in such a manner that the human being can remain safe from fire. Without making the life of a human being endangered, this robot will be able to successfully extinguish the fire by sensing it through the flame sensor. This work will enhance the security of the system, so that most of the things can be saved from the fire.

Since it is a small prototype which is used to extinguish the fire of small area but in future, it can be enhanced in such a way that the size of the robot is increased so that large area can be covered or saved from the fire.

Expression of giving thanks are just a part of those feelings which are too large for words but shall remain as memories of wonderful people with whom we got the pleasure of working during the completion of this work and also grateful to Shri Shankaracharya Institute of Professional Management and Technology, Raipur which helped me to complete my work by providing an encouraging environment. We would like to express our deep and sincere gratitude to our supervisors, Assistant Professor, Mr. Dharmendra Singh and Mr. Shishir Das. Their wide knowledge and logical way of thinking have been of great value to us. Their understanding, encouraging and personal guidance have provided a good basis for the present work.