International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communication Control and Networking (ICACCCN2018)

CeaseFire: The Fire Fighting Robot

Shiva Mittal1, Manish Kumar Rana2, Mayank Shubham Mittal

Bhardwaj3, Meenakshi Mataray4 Independent Researcher
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering 2C-126, Vasundhara
Inderprastha Engineering College Sahibabad Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India shubhammittl@gmail.com
1
shivamttl@gmail.com, 2mannishh96@gmail.com,
3
mayankbhardwaj1996@gmail.com,
4
meenakshi.mataray@gmail.com

Abstract—This paper presents CeaseFire – the firefighting meanwhile searching for the fire using fine-tuned flame
robot developed to serve firefighting crews in real-time sensors and extinguishes the fire source subsequently.
situations. The development aims to reduce the risk to human
lives during fire hazards. The robot has the capability to Kim et al. [7] suggested a small and lightweight robot
extinguish fires using water and carbon dioxide sprays, protect which can gather information from the fire sites and be
itself from burns using mist sprays, and deliver live video frames controlled remotely by fire-fighters. Equipped with sensors to
of the fire sites. The merits of the design include ease of handling, collect data such as gaseous concentration and temperature,
quick on-site initiation and long range remote controllability. robot exhibited its resistance against temperature, fluid and
Fire-fighters can send the robot in to the hazard-affected site; impact adversities. Rakib et al. [8] presented an Arduino based
analyze the exact situation using temperature, air-quality and robot which uses temperature and Arduino flame sensors to
visual inspections of prone structures; and subsequently stop the detect fire and extinguish it using water spreader’s action over
fire source using on-board extinguishers. Its quick and efficient the site. Jayanth Suresh [9] presented an autonomous robot
response to test situations demonstrates its reliability of usage in capable of detecting flames, moving towards it and hence
real world cases. extinguishing with CO2 (carbon dioxide).
Keywords—fire; fighting; robot; remote; control; extinguish Several works have been reported for effective
maneuverability of the robots inside the hazardous areas of
I. INTRODUCTION fire. In [10], Markov decision planning is employed for the
With increments in technology, contemporary world is navigation of fire-fighting robot. The planning is mapped in to
noticing increased fire accidents which turn into hazards a continuous grid map and the method was able to overcome
making it tedious for the firefighting forces to protect lives. the limitations of wall following algorithm. Authors in [11]
According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) it is did the performance analysis of A* algorithm to determine
estimated that more than 1.2 lakh deaths have been caused shortest path of firefighting robot.
because of fire accidents in India from 2010-2014 [1]. Even An intelligent multisensory robot is presented in [12]
though there are a lot of precautions taken against fire which can work in autonomous and semi-autonomous modes.
accidents, these natural/man-made disasters do occur now and In autonomous mode, it voluntary detects fire, reaches the site
then. During fire breakout, it is customary to use human and quenches the fire. The design supports controllability
resources to rescue people and condemn fire, which is not through voice as well as general user interface (GUI)
safe. commands in semi-autonomous mode and sending of alerts to
Increasing robotic solutions have been extended towards the security personnel.
the issues in fire-fighting. The robots have obvious advantages This paper proposes a remote-controlled robot to serve in
of being safer to risk than human lives, capable of getting the fire-affected sites and thereby reduce the risk towards life
equipped with multitude of sensors and usable to extinguish of firefighters and persons stuck in such situations. The robot
fires over the affected sites. A robot can hence be employed to can be sent inside the premises to carry out surveillance
patrol a region for accidental fires [2]. The various applicable through its onboard camera. Meanwhile the robot’s operator
sensors can be interfaced to microcontrollers such as Arduino can maneuver it through the whole site remotely from far
for effective performance of fire detection [3-4]. An adaptive away range. Equipped with water and CO2 based
fusion method has been developed for automatic detection of extinguishing capability, it can mitigate the exact fire, while
fire in a fire-fighting robot, which can automatically move to protecting itself from burns using mist sprays over its body.
the fire source to extinguish it [5]. An autonomous firefighting Quick response and bi-directional communication with
mobile platform [6] has been developed which patrols through victims makes it more supportive in such kind of life-
the hazardous sites using combination of algorithms threatening situations.

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 International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communication Control and Networking (ICACCCN2018)

The paper continues as follows: next section describes the Figure 3 depicts the block diagram of hardware design
hardware involved. Section III gives the details of software architecture used to develop the robot. Basically, the system
functionality. Subsequent section discusses the can be said to comprise of 6 subsystems, linked together via a
experimentation and results. Finally, Section V gives the control system implemented at main control unit in the center.
conclusion and scope of future improvements.
Power System
II. Hardware Design
Figure 1 depicts the picture of the actual constructed robot
– the CeaseFire. Figure 2 shows the remote control system Communication Wheel
System Drive
developed to control it. Control System
(Arduino Mega)
Sensory Fire
System extinguishing
system

Audio Visual System

Remote Control
System

Fig. 3. Hardware Design Architecture

A. Control System
The prime control inside the robot is done using
ATmega2560 microcontroller based board Arduino Mega
[13]. The board was chosen due to ample number of digital
I/O (input / output) pins as well as analog inputs, which can be
programmed easily on a very user-friendly Arduino IDE
(Integrated Development Environment). Hassle-free power
supply options and plug-n-play computer connectivity options
are further convenient features for programmers.
B. Wheel Drive
Six Direct Current (DC) geared motors with 30 kg-cm
torque and 250 rpm speed have been fitted on a square
structure. The motors are capable of providing enough torque
to carry the weight of the robot and extinguisher equipment
while moving at a max speed of 1.25 m/s. Each motor is
Fig. 1. CeaseFire Robot attached with a wheel of 120 mm diameter having rubber tread
to provide enough traction while in motion on any kind of
floor. Control of direction and speed of motors is done using
motor driver IC L298N [14].
C. Sensory System
The robot is equipped with temperature sensing and air
quality monitoring capability. Digital temperature sensor
DS18B20 [15] is interfaced to obtain the ambient temperature
of CeaseFire. Air quality sensor MQ-135 [16] can detect
ammonia, nitrous oxides, alcohol, benzene, smoke, carbon
dioxide, etc. The real time temperature and air quality are
hence transmitted to the user remote wirelessly.
D. Audio Visual System
A CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera is housed over
the top to survey real fire situation. It is equipped with night-
vision as well, to serve in dark or low-lit areas or passages to
the hazard sight. The night vision IR (infra-red) LEDs switch
on automatically through the effect of built-in LDR (light
detecting resistor). The built-in microphone and speaker in the
Fig. 2. Remote control system camera enable the fire fighters to directly talk to the person

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 International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communication Control and Networking (ICACCCN2018)

who get stuck in fire. The camera has pan-tilt controllability of

355 × 120 degrees.
Display
E. Communication System
Wireless communication link is established between two
NRF24L01 [17] transceiver modules attached to both robot Keypad
and remote controller. The transceivers are ultra-low power µC +
ICs with baud rate of upto 2Mpbs working upon 2.4 GHz RF NRF24L01 Arduino Joystick
(radio frequency) band. They enable communication over a
long range upto 1.8 km.
F. Fire Extinguishing System
5V Battery
The robot is capable of extinguishing fires using water and Source
CO2 sprays. The water tank is fitted with a high pressure pump
and then a water pipe whose direction can be controlled via Fig. 5. Remote control hardware connectivity diagram
the metal geared servos. The water supply is switchable using
solenoid valve. The CO2 emission from the cylinder can be III. SOFTWARE DESIGN
controlled through the use of another solenoid gas value All the software implementations havebeen done using
switchable wirelessly. Arduino IDE. The programs are written in C language inside
Complementary to the active extinguishing system, the IDE and then compiled. The resultant hex file is burnt into
CeaseFire is able to protect its own existence while fighting the Arduino Mega. On the remote side, the respective code is
against fire, using continuous mist spray around itself from burnt in the Arduino Mega. For one-to-one communication
mist throwers installed at its bottom. between the fire-fighter and the victims in the affected area,
the visual feed from the installed camera is accessed through
G. Power system an Android app named CamHi [18], which is a freely available
CeaseFire uses two 12 Volt 7.2 Ah (Ampere hour) nickel- application. The app delivers the video feed constantly over
cadmium batteries which essentially powers the wheel drive the wireless link. The operator can toggle the audio feed ON
and other interfaced devices such as Arduino Mega, servo and OFF using the on-screen button. The app also facilitates
motors and pumps through use of suitable linear voltage exploitation of camera’s ability to pan and tilt, using the on-
regulator ICs (Integrated Circuits). screen cursor.
H. Remote Control System The remote control joystick is used to control the
The remote controller consists of Arduino Mega for main movement of the robot’s wheel drive, while the buttons are
control, NRF24L01 transceiver, keypad, joystick and a 16 × 2 used to control the fire extinguishing system and buzzers. The
LCD display. The remote controller is powered using 5V mapping of functionalities offered by the joystick and buttons
battery bank. is summarized in Table 1.

Figure 4 gives the connectivity diagram of major hardware TABLE I. MAPPING OF REMOTE CONTROL SWITCHES
components involved to design CeaseFire robot. Figure 5
Switch Function
depicts the hardware connections involved in making the
Joystick- UP Move Forward
remote controller. Dashed arrows depict the
logic/control/communication lines while the bold ones depict Joystick- DOWN Move Backward
the power supply rails. Joystick- LEFT Move Left
Joystick- RIGHT Move Right
Air NRF24L01 Button-1 Water Jet On/Off
Water
quality Button-2 Water Mist On/Off
Pump
Sensor Button-3 Gas Relay On/Off
Button-4 Lights On/Off
µC Relay Button-5 Jet Position Up (+ 10 degrees)
Temperature
Arduino Board Button-6 Jet Position Down (-10 degrees)
Sensor Solenoid
Valve Button-7 Buzzers On/Off
(Water)
5V
Motor Regulator IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Driver
The project resulted in successfully developing a robot that
Solenoid could be operated as an extinguisher and be controlled
Valve
Battery
(Gas)
remotely, via wireless communication channel. The robot has
DC Motor
ample steering control, maneuverability and weight with large
Fig. 4. Robot hardware connectivity diagram torque to navigate through non-ideal terrain and carry a

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 International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communication Control and Networking (ICACCCN2018)

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ability, CeaseFire can handle many types of fire including Bridge%20Motor%20Driver%20datasheet.pdf
electric fires common now-a-days. The robot can protect its [15] https://datasheets.maximintegrated.com/en/ds/DS18B20.pdf
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rod_spec_1_2.pdf
artificially created fires, where the robot performed as
[18] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hichip
expected. The successful and prompt response of the robot in
simulated fire situations demonstrate its ability to work with
similar agility in real situations and prove as an effective
assistive solution to firefighters to condemn fires in homes,
laboratories, offices, etc.
Future work will be done to improve the design of
CeaseFire using better temperature shielding by using more
resistant connectors and components including cables and
camera, lighter batteries, heat-resistant structuring materials,
etc.
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