Firefighting robot with video full-closed loop control

In view of the many problems in firefighting robots, such as complicated flame positioning, poor environmental adaptability, and difficult installation and debugging, a new firefighting robot design is presented with video full closed-loop feedback to extinguish ground fire in this paper. The firefighting robot consists of a 2-DOF robot, a monocular camera, and a controller. The monocular camera installed on the second link of the robot is utilized to detect and locate ground flames. The robot can dynamically adjust the water landing point to track a flame in real-time through motion control, as the camera is specifically designed with an additional infrared narrowband pass filter and a filter-switching mechanism. An algorithm of detecting and positioning for flame and water landing point is proposed based on image processing and robotic kinematics. Experimental results show that the firefighting robot with video full closed-loop feedback can realize real-time flame detection, location, and sprinkler, and can dynamically track fire location within the monitoring scope. The distance error between fire and the landing point of the water jet can be controlled within a narrow range. Moreover, this firefighting robot is easy to install, debug and have good environment adaptability, and provides efficient and safe solutions for complicated firefighting environment. At the same time, due to its small size and convenient calibration features, this firefighting robot is especially suitable for large space environments. © 2016 WIT Press.