PRE2018 1 Group1
Preface
Usefull Links
via the link below notes from coach meetings and our own meetings can be found
Group members
| Name | Study | Student ID |
|---|---|---|
| Buijvoets D.C.J.T | Mechanical & Electrical Engineering | 0902148 |
| Cornet, N. | Industrial Design | 1007926 |
| Van Horssen, C. | Software Science | 0885378 |
| Mouw, F.A. | Applied Physics | 1005735 |
| Stokbroekx, D.L.M. | Mechanical Engineering | 1010326 |
Initial robotic concepts
After discussing several subjects from different fields in society, we came up with the following list of robotic concepts which have potential to solve problems faced by certain users.
- Fire fighter drone which can be used to aid fire fighters
- Cleaning drone for difficult to reach spots in buildings
- Pavement cleaning drone which can remove dirt from tiles
- Avalanche rescue drone that helps rescuing teams search for victims in an avalanche using already available beacons
- Weeding robot which can differentiate between wanted and unwanted plants in a garden and remove the weeds
- Referee robot using image processing to determine the state of a match in e.g. soccer or tennis
- Medical nanobots for drug delivery
- Fruit harvest robots
Chosen concept: Fast Response Extinguish Drone, F.R.E.D.
Eventually we agreed upon the concept of a fire fighter drone. Fire fighting is one of the most dangerous jobs and every year people are still being killed by fires. Extra preparation and information on the fire site can make the difference between life and death. That is where we thought a drone could be of help.
Problem statement
How can drones be used in combination with smarthomes for fully autonomous fire fighting. In this project the focus will be on the fire extinguishing part of fire fighting.
Objectives
- The smarthome needs to give victims information about what they can do to improve their chances of survival without injury
- It needs to be able to communicate the current state of the fire back to the fire department to inform and prepare firefighters
- The drone has to be able to fly inside a building autonomously
- It has to have the ability to extinguish small fires or reduce the intensity of larger ones
During this project, our focus will especially be on the last objective.
Project setup
Before actually starting the project, a setup is made on how it will be executed.
Approach
- Decide functionality of the drone
- Do research on different subjects concerning the functionality of the drone
- Design drone and functions
- Make prototype
- Test prototype
Milestones
For the duration of this course, the following milestones are selected:
- Week 1: Every member will take the time to do research on robots and their interests, in order to broaden one's horizon on the possible subjects. Afterwards a subject for the project will be chosen.
- Week 2: Literature study and further research will be completed
- Week 3: USE analysis is finished
- Week 4: Design for the first prototype will be finished
- Week 6: First prototype will be finished
- Week 8: Final Design, final prototype and all other deliverables will be finished
Deliverables
The following deliverables will be created during this course:
- Thorough research and literature study
- Design research process and report
- A functional drone design
- (several) Prototypes
- Ethical evaluation
- A wiki page on this domain
Planning: Who's doing what
| Week | All | Dirk | Natanya | Chiel | Fabian | Daan | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finding suitable projects + finding articles on the chosen subject | Basic user requirements | Formulating Problem statement | ||||
| 2 | Further elaborating user requirements and USE analysis + making persona’s of the users | State of the art research | State of the art research | State of the art research | Further elaborating user requirements and USE analysis + start making designs for the robot | ||
| 3 | Checking wiki and correcting formulation if necessary | Continuing on design for the robot + finishing USE analysis | |||||
| 4 | Work on USE requirements | Starting on control software for the robot | Starting constructing of the prototype | Starting constructing of the prototype | Finishing robot design | ||
| 5 | Checking wiki and correcting formulation if necessary | Create a specific situation for use | Construction of the prototype | Construction of the prototype | |||
| 6 | Testing and evaluating prototype + find and analyse flaws in the design + fixing the design flaws | First prototype finished | First prototype finished | ||||
| 7 | Find and analyse flaws in the design + fixing the design flaws + checking wiki and correcting formulation if necessary | Preparing presentation | Preparing presentation | ||||
| 8 | Final design and robot finished + Presentation of the result |
USE analysis
Relevant users and their requirements
- Fire fighters will require a fast response time to the fire and an accurate analysis of the fire site
- Victims require information on how to reduce harm to themselves and others and a safe rescue
Because no contact could be found with any victims, and that there was no chance to visit the fire department yet, the following requirements are based upon the usage of common sense and the information found on victim support sites. These are temporary and will be further validated once contact with experts has been made.
- Two options
- Firedepartment owns the drones
- Drones are part of smart home package (in that case, building owner becomes main stakeholders)
- Main users
-
- Fire fighters/Fire Department
- The fire department uses the drone in order to put out fires more easily, safer and faster. Because the drone can be at the site of the fire faster than the fire fighters, the fire will get less time to spread out and victims have a bigger chance of survival. Furthermore if a part of the fire is already extinguished, the firefighters themselves are less at risk to sustain serious or even lethal injuries.
- Requirements:
- Fire localization
- The drone needs to be able to search for and recognize an ongoing fire
- Autonomous flight
- The drone need to be able to fly to the site of the fire autonomously
- Long durability
- The drone needs to be fire resistant and to be able to withstand at least XXX missions.
- Long battery life
- The drone needs to be able to fly around actively for at least XXX minutes
- Victim recognition
- The drone needs to be able to recognize humans/victims close to the fire
- Able to extinguish small fires
- The drone needs to be able to extinguish small fires (max. AFMETINGEN)
- Situation analysis
- The drone needs to be able to analyse the situation, the damage and if the call was a false alarm or not
- Fire victims
- Being amids a fire, is a very stressful and traumatic experience.Victims during a fire can either be conscious or unconscious. When conscious, the victim needs to be able to be reassured that help is on its way and to stay as calm as possible. When unconscious it is important that the victim attains as little (further) damage or injuries as possible.
- Requirements:
- Make victim feel safe
- The drone needs to try to keep the victim as calm as possible, by assuring that help is on its way and to explain every action it is taken. The victim should not feel threatened by the drone
- Give instructions
- After analysing a situation, the drone needs to, if possible, give instructions to the victim of possible actions to improve chance of survival of the victim
- Cannot (lethally) harm victim in any way
- The drone is not allowed to harm the victim in any way, or do something that brings lethal injury to the victim.
- Other stakeholders
- Building owners
- Building owners have
- Requirements:
- Building should sustain as less damage as possible
Personas
Scenario
Relevance to society
- People living in range of the fire station using this drone will be subject to better rescuing in case of a fire
- If the drone is being used to aid at fighting a fire, the people living in the viscinity of that fire will have a smaller chance that the fire will affect them
Relevance to enterprise
- The government
- Fire department
TU/e Fire Department
Currently the fire department is running a project with the innovation space, by accident a group member came in contact with someone involved with this. They had a demonstration/meeting with the TU/e fire department planned and we were invited to come and have a look on Monday the 24th of September. Also we received a contact within the fire department, this person is responsible for innovation and repression specifically in south-east Brabant.
Rotterdam Fire Department
A conversation was held with the director of the rotterdam fire department, which actually has a fire fighting drone in operation at the moment. This drone is autonomously navigated by another (controlled) vehicle which makes a 3D map of the inside of a building. We will have the opportunity to talk to the project leader of this drone about some points of improvement.
We will visit the Rotterdam fire department on Friday 28th of September
The “Gezamelijke Brandweer” in Rotterdam has been using their drone for 5 years. They are required, when using it, to always have the drone in line of sight. The drone has a reach of 5km, but the firefighters are restricted to a limitation of 500m and 120m high. It can fly on a single pack of batteries for 35 minutes and can lift 6kg. Most importantly, it flies stable, even above a fire. Which is something not every drone can do.
They are of the opinion that a drone is best used to gather information, while the drone is very mobile. Through a normal camera and a heat camera, they can investigate and assess the situation. That way the firefighters can go into the building more prepared and less casualties will fall. Fast response time is crucial when it comes to a rescue mission. It, however, does take 3 people now to fly the drone. (One keeps track of the location, one steers it, one steers the camera). Furthermore, the heat camera can be of a big help when locating and assessing the state of eventual victims. People who have passed away (colder) will have low priority than people who are still alive. Every operation starts with a headcount of people who are (supposed to be) in the building.
It is forbidden by law to fly for private use. Only people from Brandweer Nederland with a pilot license are allowed to freely fly right now.
Their recommendation was to focus on controlling fire with the drone, and not try to extinguish it. 1L of water produces 17L of steam, which is ideal to control fire with. Our choice of drone can carry up to around 0.5kg, which would produce 8.5L of steam.
Meetings with people
Fire department TU/e
Conclusies: (Interview met Brandweer Eindhoven)
We gaan opzoeken wat veelvoorkomende brandjes zijn en daarop blusstof voor bot baseren.Poeder is effectiever vollume/effectiviteit en gewicht/effectiviteit dan alles, maar doet meer dan alleen de brand uitzetten.
We moeten uitzoeken wat de tijden precies zijn die de robot heeft om een fikkie te blussen, en welke brandmelders dus ook het eerste aangeven.
Niet alles is best case scenario (sunny day). Denk aan slingers tijdens een feestje of verouderde huizen.
Het is prettig als drone vuur contoleerd, probeerd te blussen en gelijk daarna alle mensen ontruimd
Drone team fire department Rotterdam
Audio recording of conversation: https://storage2.cvhorssen.nl/s/MLJdKtEQ0PKYhcg (download available until 31-12-2018)
Audio can be played from browser without file download or account (click on the big icon in the center).
State of the art: Literature study
One of the most important facets of this project is to come to an understanding of the current state of technologic advancement that is relevant to the drone and its functionalities. Therefore, literature on different relevant catagories is studied to understand the state of the art. Here follows a list of the scientific research that was studied for this project, divided into the different relevant catagories.
Drones in firefighting
Drones and robots are already extensively used in firefighting but there are few examples of actual autonomous fire extinguishing drones. Most drones in firefighting are used to support humans by providing vital information on the emergency.
Drones provide information on how fires are spreading and developing to firefighters to increases the efficiency of the process by sending units to right places. The information gathered by these drones can also be further analyzed for a better understanding of how fire spreads for optimization of extinguishing techniques. One of the largest fire departments in the world the L.A.F.D. (Los Angeles Fire Department) is currently researching and using these kind of drones [1]. The drones have been used for the first time during the massive wildfires in December 2017 and have been a great help in the firefighting process. These drones do still require a human pilot and a human to analyze the information.
Drones also help emergency services with other non-fire related disasters. For example, during floods or earthquakes these drones can be in the disaster area much faster to collect information on the situation for the emergency services.
A different application for drones in firefighting is the localization of victims in fires that would otherwise never be found. Currently one of the best drones for this undertaking is the Firestorm UAV [2]. This drone can find victims inside burning buildings using a thermal camera also this drone can detect toxic gasses and inform firefighters on the situation in a building. Using bright LED lights, the drone can lead a localized victim along the safest path outside of the building.
The emergency services also use the drones to make emergency deliveries to certain disaster areas. The payloads of the drones can be extremely diverse, from AED machines, medical- and food supplies. One of the drones currently in development for this purpose by the company ZIPLINE [3]. The drone that is currently being tested in the USA and already operational in Rwanda for blood deliveries to rural hard to get areas drops the payload mid-air before it flies back to base to be resupplied and launched again.
Another way in which drones are used by fire departments is to make pre-fire plans for high risk or vital buildings. These drones can map escape routes and localize water supplies and potential problems for these buildings.
There are some drones that can also extinguish fire. But these drones are not autonomous and require a human pilot or firetruck for water supply and further support. An example of drones used for actual fire extinguishing are the drones produced by the company AERONES [4]. Although these drones are capable of combatting fires they cannot operate without the presence of a fire truck supporting the drone with water and electricity. This drone can reach heights of 300 meters which is much higher than the height a traditional fire truck can reach. However due to the hoses connected to the drone it can only be used for combating the fire from the exterior. This drone can be useful for fires in high-rise buildings or at other great heights that were traditionally hard to reach.
[1] https://uavcoach.com/tipping-points/
[2] https://designmind.frogdesign.com/2014/03/drones-will-save-life/
[4] https://www.aerones.com/eng/drones/firefighting_drone/
General Drone Information
- Remington, Raquel, et al. "Multi-Purpose Aerial Drone for Bridge Inspection and Fire Extinguishing." (Unpublished Thesis). Florida International University. Retrieved April 10 (2014): 2016. (Fabian)
- Suresh, Jayanth. "Fire-fighting robot." Computational Intelligence in Data Science (ICCIDS), 2017 International Conference on. IEEE, 2017.(Fabian)
- Design of a portable robot/device that is able to gather environmental information about the fire and guide victims for evacuation: Kim, Y.-D., Kim, Y.-G., Lee, S.-H., Kang, J.-H., An, J. “Portable fire evacuation guide robot system” (2009) IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2009, art. no. 5353970, pp. 2789-2794. (Daan)
- General controller for safer autonomous navigation: Pestana, J., Mellado-Bataller, I., Fu, C., Sanchez-Lopez, J.L., Mondragon, I.F., Campoy, P. “A general purpose configurable navigation controller for micro aerial multirotor vehicles” (2013) International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS 2013 - Conference Proceedings, art. no. 6564733, pp. 557-564. (Daan)
- Complete navigation system using 3D laser scanner for omnidirectional environment perception, local and allocentric maps for positioning and a multi-layered approach for trajectory planning (global mission trajectory and local obstacle avoidance): Nieuwenhuisen, M., Droeschel, D., Beul, M., Behnke, S. “Autonomous Navigation for Micro Aerial Vehicles in Complex GNSS-denied Environments” (2016) Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems: Theory and Applications, 84(1-4), pp. 199-216. (Daan)
- Obstacle avoidance and field planning using monocular sensory input: Mac, T.T., Copot, C., Hernandez, A., De Keyser, R. “Improved potential field method for unknown obstacle avoidance using UAV in indoor environment” (2016) SAMI 2016 - IEEE 14th International Symposium on Applied Machine Intelligence and Informatics - Proceedings, art. no. 7423032, pp. 345-350. (Daan)
Autonomous victim detection
- Detecting injured humans on images taken from aerial vehicles: ANDRILUKA, Mykhaylo, et al. Vision based victim detection from unmanned aerial vehicles. In: Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on. IEEE, 2010. p. 1740-1747. (Chiel)
- Building maps and marking victims on those maps using hyperspectral imaging: TRIERSCHEID, Marina, et al. Hyperspectral imaging or victim detection with rescue robots. In: Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics, 2008. SSRR 2008. IEEE International Workshop on. IEEE, 2008. p. 7-12. (Chiel)
- Victim detection using an adapted Viola-Jones algorithm: DE CUBBER, Geert; MARTON, Gabor. Human victim detection. In: Third International Workshop on Robotics for risky interventions and Environmental Surveillance-Maintenance, RISE. 2009. (Chiel)
- Using ad-hoc network with base station (firetruck or fire department?): SUGIYAMA, Hisayoshi; TSUJIOKA, Tetsuo; MURATA, Masashi. Victim Detection System for Urban Search and Rescue Based on Active Network Operation. In: HIS. 2003. p. 1104-1113. (Chiel)
- False positive reduction on victim detection from colored images: KLEINER, Alexander; KUMMERLE, Rainer. Genetic MRF model optimization for real-time victim detection in search and rescue. In: Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2007. IROS 2007. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on. IEEE, 2007. p. 3025-3030. (Chiel)
- Detecting victims using pseudo-noise radars, whose signals scatter from body motions of victims: SACHS, Jürgen, et al. Trapped victim detection by pseudo-noise radar. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Wireless Technologies for Humanitarian Relief. ACM, 2011. p. 265-272. (Chiel)
Fire detection
- Detecting fire from colored images, distinguishing fire and smoke: CHEN, Thou-Ho; WU, Ping-Hsueh; CHIOU, Yung-Chuen. An early fire-detection method based on image processing. In: Image Processing, 2004. ICIP'04. 2004 International Conference on. IEEE, 2004. p. 1707-1710. (Chiel)
- Detecting fire using space-time fluctuations on colored images: YAMAGISHI, Hideaki; YAMAGUCHI, JUNICHI. Fire flame detection algorithm using a color camera. In: Micromechatronics and Human Science, 1999. MHS'99. Proceedings of 1999 International Symposium on. IEEE, 1999. p. 255-260. (Chiel)
- Detecting fire using Gaussian distributions: CELIK, Turgay, et al. Fire detection using statistical color model in video sequences. Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, 2007, 18.2: 176-185. (Chiel)
- Fire detection in tunnels using cameras and infrared: NODA, S.; UEDA, K. Fire detection in tunnels using an image processing method. In: Vehicle Navigation and Information Systems Conference, 1994. Proceedings., 1994. IEEE, 1994. p. 57-62. (Chiel)
Fire suppression
Today there exists a wide variety of methods to suppress fires. Since this project is based around a drone, one of the main concerns is the weight of the fire suppressant. It should be as light as possible per amount of fire that it can put out. Furthermore, our method should be able to extinguish an as wide variety of fires as possible. Especially fires of class A, B, C and F (European standard) seem to be most common in buildings.
The use of a pressurized water mist extinguisher seems to be impractical. Although an extinguisher of this type is able to suppress fires of type F (cooking oils and fats), next to ordinary fires, a lot of water is needed to put out an average fire. Typical amount of 9 litres are often required[5], which is much more than an average drone can carry next to its own equipment. Furthermore, the suppression of fires using water mist often results in a large fire cloud in the process, due to the increased heat transfer that is caused by the water droplets. This would be impractical as it could harm the drone.
Another method is the use of particulate aerosols. Often, particles are generated from a solid or gel and mix with the air. Particulate aerosols prove to be a very lightweight alternative for water, with results showing the same fire suppressing abilities at a 30 times lower volumetric flow, compared to normal water.[6]
[5] Experiments with a portable mist extinguisher for different types of fires: Liu, Z., Kim, A.K., Carpenter, D. “A study of portable water mist fire extinguishers used for extinguishment of multiple fire types” (2007) Fire Safety Journal, 42 (1), pp. 25-42. (Daan)
[6] Korobeinichev, O.P., Shmakov, A.G., Shvartsberg, V.M., Chernov, A.A., Yakimov, S.A., Koutsenogii, K.P., Makarov, V.I. “Fire suppression by low-volatile chemically active fire suppressants using aerosol technology” (2012) Fire Safety Journal, 51, pp. 102-109.
- Experiments of different solid particulate aerosol suppressants in the form of a solid, gel or powder: Kibert, C.J., Dierdorf, D. “Solid particulate aerosol fire suppressants” (1994) Fire Technology, 30 (4), pp. 387-399. (Daan)
- Testing the effectiveness of using nanocomposites as additive to conventional powder suppressants: Ni, X., Kuang, K., Wang, X., Liao, G. “A New Type of BTP/Zeolites Nanocomposites as Mixed-phase Fire Suppressant: Preparation, Characterization, and Extinguishing Mechanism Discussion” (2010) Journal of Fire Sciences, 28 (1), pp. 5-25. (Daan)
- Different delivery systems (with cooling) for the stream of aerosol coming from a pyrogenic aerosol fire suppressant Vitale, J., Kibert, C., Akers, l. “PYROGENIC AEROSOL FIRE SUPPRESSANTS:
ENGINEERING OF DELIVERY SYSTEMS AND CORROSION ANALYSIS.”
- Information on and tests with solid dispersion aerosols Kibert, C., Dierdorf, D. “ENCAPSULATED MICRON AEROSOL AGENTS (EMAA)”
Fire resistant materials
- Lyon, Richard E., et al. "Fire‐resistant aluminosilicate composites." Fire and materials 21.2 (1997): 67-73. (Fabian)
- Myeong, W. C., Kwang Yik Jung, and Hyun Myung. "Development of FAROS (fire-proof drone) using an aramid fiber armor and air buffer layer." Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAI), 2017 14th International Conference on. IEEE, 2017. (Fabian)
- Myeong, Wancheol, Kwang Yik Jung, and Hyun Myung. "Development of a fire-proof aerial robot system for fire disaster." World Congress on Advances in Nano, Bio, Robotics and Energy (ANBRE). IASEM Conferences, 2017.(Fabian)
- Abbott, N. J., M. M. Schoppee, and J. Skelton. Heat Resistant and Nonflammable Materials. FABRIC RESEARCH LABS INC DEDHAM MA, 1976. (Fabian)
- Luo, Qiu-Sheng, Shi-Feng Li, and Hui-Ping Pei. "Progress in titanium fire resistant technology for aero-engine." Journal of Aerospace Power 27.12 (2012): 2763-2768.(Fabian)
Not catagorized yet
- (Up from the Rubble: Lessons Learned about HRI from Search and Rescue)
Robin R. Murphy & Jennifer L. Burke
- (Improved Interfaces for Human-Robot Interaction in Urban Search and Rescue)
Michael Baker, Robert Casey, Brenden Keyes, and Holly A. Yanco
- (Exploring 3D Gesture Metaphors for Interaction with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)
Kevin P. Pfeil, Seng Lee Koh, Joseph J. LaViola Jr.
- (Analysis of Human-Robot Interaction for Urban Search and Rescue)
Holly A. Yanco, Michael Baker, Robert Casey, Brenden Keyes, Philip Thoren, Jill L. Drury, Douglas Few, Curtis Nielsen, David Bruemmer
- (Drone Near Me: Exploring Touch-Based Human-Drone Interaction)
PARASTOO ABTAHI, DAVID Y. ZHAO, JANE L. E, and JAMES A. LANDAY
- (Evaluation of Human-Robot Interaction Awareness in Search and Rescue)
Jean Scholtz, Jeff Young, Jill L. Drury, Holly A.Yanco
- (Human-Drone-Interaction: A Case Study to Investigate the Relation Between Autonomy and User Experience)
Patrick Christ, Axel Hösl, Florian Lachner, Klaus Dieopold
- (Emotion Encoding in Human-Drone Interaction)
Jessica R. Cauchard*, Kevin Y. Zhai, Marco Spadafora, James A. Landay
- (Human-Robot Interaction in Rescue Robotics)
Robin R. Murphy
- (Human-Robot Teaming for Search and Rescue)
Illah R. Nourbakhsh, Katia Sycara, Mary Koes, and Mark Yong, Michael Lewis, Steve Burion
- (Natural User Interfaces for Human-Drone Multi-Modal Interaction)
Ramón A. Suárez Fernández, Jose Luis Sanchez-Lopez, Carlos Sampedro, Hriday Bavle, Martin Molina, and Pascual Campoy (Drone & Wo: Cultural Influences on Human-Drone Interaction Techniques) Jane L. E, Ilene L. E, James A. Landay, Jessica R. Cauchard
- (Drone & Me: An Exploration Into Natural Human-Drone Interaction)
Jessica R. Cauchard, Jane L. E, Kevin Y. Zhai, James A. Landay
Hardware and design
Choices made on design and hardware will be discussed and substantiated here. The required response time and required extinguishing capabilities will determine the choice for a drone
Response Time
The most common types of fire in and around homes are: kitchen fires, electrical fires, heater fires and smoking related fires. In the end a drone capable of responding to all these fire types is preferable. Most fires get out of control fast, usually within minutes. Therefore, it’s important that the drone can be on side very fast. The response time of the drone depends on several aspects: the location where the drone is stationed in the building, the speed at which it can move through the building and the way the fire is reported to the drone.
Placement in building
When placing F.R.E.D. in a building it is important for a small response time that the drone is located close to rooms or areas with higher risks of fire. In regular homes with homeowners that do not smoke the kitchen has the highest risk of hosting a fire. But when there are people who live in the house that smoke indoors the number of rooms with high risk of fire increases drastically. Every room where a person smokes inside is a potential fire hazard. From our conversation with the TU/e fire department became clear that houses where elderly people live are also more likely to catch fire.
When finding a suitable location to place the drone one very important user requirement must be considered. This requirement is that the user doesn’t constantly want to see or bump into the drone in his home. Therefore, the drone should be placed on a discrete location preferably close to all high-risk areas in the house. From now on the assumption will be made that the homeowners do not smoke or do not smoke inside their house. This means that the highest risk of fire is in the kitchen. Since the most ideal situation for the drone to operate in is a smart home environment this will also be considered for finding a good location, this means the drone knows his way around the house and is able to remotely open doors inside the house for it to move from room to room. When a new smart home is built with F.R.E.D. integrated in it, there are a few good locations for placing the drone are:
- The first possibility is to place the drone in the ceiling, in this way the drone will never hinder the user, but it may cause some difficulties for maintenance and routine checks of the drone. It’s therefore important that the drone will be easily accessible in a safe way for the user.
- A different possibility is to place the drone inside a wall, this can be in a horizontal or vertical position. A drone may have some difficulties to lift of in a vertical position especially when it is heavy. Therefore, a mechanism is required that first brings the drone horizontal before it can be launched when placed vertical in the wall. A disadvantage for the user is that a piece of wall must remain free and unblocked for the drone. When the drone is placed in the wall on an appropriate height, let’s say around 1.20 meters, it’s easily accessible for maintenance or routine checks.
- The drone can also be placed inside the floor, this is comparable to placement in the ceiling but in this situation the drone is better accessible by the user when required. A major disadvantage of this is that some places of the floor can’t be used by the user for placing furniture. Also, it’s required that the drone isn’t located somewhere where there is a door, in a hallway or on the evacuation route because this may hinder the user in getting around in his own house.
While working on the project we work with a scenario where the drone is stored in the ceiling.
In existing buildings ceiling, floor or wall are not always possible locations. Therefore, the drone could also be placed inside a closet or specially designed dogging station on the wall. When people have a kitchen with a build in fridges and other kitchen equipment there is usually a lot of unused space above or below the fridges or kitchen cupboards. This space can be used to place the drone. These solutions can also be used in new buildings. For the placement of the drone it is important to give the user a choice where he or she might want the drone to be localized since this may differ per user.
But a recommendation can be given, the best way to place the drone for both existing and new homes is in garages, storage rooms, attics or basements. Unfortunately, not all homes for example apartments have these spaces. The best way to place the drone in the situation when these are not available is in a wall or ceiling for newly build smart homes and for existing houses the best location is making use of unused spaces in the kitchen or other rooms. No matter the location of the drone, the deployment might take some time however this may never exceed 5 seconds.
Reporting the fire
When a proper location for F.R.E.D. has been found a way of reporting the fire to the drone must be chosen. This can be done via an automatic fire alarm using smoke and/or heat detectors. Since a smart home environment is considered the drone knows the location of the fire when the alarm is initiated. A different possibility for reporting the fire is manually by using a switch on a wall or an app on your smart phone. Manual switches on walls to trigger the fire alarm can already be found in a lot of larger buildings. The only issue with these is that they don’t look very nice and a user might not want to have these switches in every room of his house. Therefore, an app on the user’s smart phone takes away this issue for the user. When a fire is reported via manual switches on the wall or via an app the drone also knows where the fire is located if the alarm is being sounded in the room where the fire is.
For automatic fire detection there are two main types of alarms: photoelectric- and ionization smoke alarms. For the drone to respond fast there should be smoke detectors and alarms in as many rooms as possible. Ionization smoke alarms are usually more sensitive to flaming fires and photoelectric ones are more sensitive to smoldering fires [3]. Since most fatal home fires are a result of smoldering fires it’s best to use photoelectric detectors in the house. The time until the alarms goes off depends on the amount of smoke produced by the fire, but by analyzing fire development movies it’s safe to say that most alarms are triggered around 15 seconds after ignition. [V1 to V5]
Travel distance and time
The final step for determining the response time of the drone is the speed at which it can fly. But another very important factor for the speed on the response time is the distance the drone must travel. An average newly build Dutch house is 116 m2 [1], consider this house has 2 floors and is square this would mean the square has sides of 7.6 m. When the drone is located as far away from the fire as possible this would mean it has to travel to the other side of the building change floors and go back to the other side of the building. This would mean the maximum distance it has to travel in an average home also considering walls and moving up to another floor is around 25 meters. A drone that would be very capable to use as a basis for F.R.E.D. (unfortunately not available for this project) is the DJI Matrice 600, it can carry up to 6 kilos and has a top speed of 18 meters per second [2]. So, the top speed of the drone isn’t really an issue. But the drone also must make turns and should not further endanger the people in the house. Therefore, the top speed of the drone should be limited to 1 meter per second because the drone will still be able to reach the fire within 30 seconds when it’s furthest away from a fire in an average home and with the drone traveling at this speed user in the house can anticipate on the drone moving through the house.
When taking the deployment time, fire alarm response time and distance the drone must travel into account the overall maximum response time of F.R.E.D. in an average house will be around 55 seconds. But is this sufficient? From analyzing fire development movies some conclusions can be made [V1 to V5]. Fire development goes very rapidly and accelerates over time. After around 1 minute most fires are still isolated and easy to extinguish. When the drone isn’t on site extinguishing within 2 minutes after ignition it cannot do much more. Usually in around 3 minutes the entire room ignites, and the home is lost. From this can be concluded that a maximum response time of 55 seconds for F.R.E.D. should be sufficient enough to slow completely extinguish the fire or slow the fire down and buy more time for people to flee the building. From our conversation with the TU/e fire department became clear that it’s vital to act in the first minute of the fire. From the fire department perspective, the most important part is to get all people in the building to safety and not if the entire building burns down or not. Homeowners however also put a lot of value in to their belongings and an effort to extinguish the fire in the early stages of the fire might be able to safe their precious belongings.
http://demographia.com/db-intlhouse.htm [1] https://www.dji.com/matrice600/info [2] https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/By-topic/Smoke-alarms/Ionization-vs-photoelectric [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qu4GCch-dM [V1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQV_MJwYQ3k [V2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM5zO3L76QU [V3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piofZLySsNc [V4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtMmymOxdjc [V5]
Fire suppression
Extinguisher requirements
The main idea of the drone’s ability to suppress fires is that it can react quickly to small fires that have not gone out of control yet. It would be unrealistic to assume that a single drone without a continuous water supply would be able to extinguish large house fires, so the focus lies on preventing large fires by reacting quickly.
One of the most common types are kitchen fires.[1] Amongst these, grease fires occur frequently and can be very hard to control. Other kitchen fires can include oven fires and electrical fires. Since grease fires are among the most common types of fires and one of the most challenging to suppress, we set the drone’s goal at being able to suppress an average grease fire (resulting from heating grease in a pan up to its auto ignition temperature).
If the drone is able to suppress this type of fire (type F), we can almost assume that it will be able to suppress fires of type A, B and C of the same scale too. Though further experimentation might be needed to validate this assumption.
| Number | Requirement | Comments | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REM 1 | Drone must be able to automatically activate the mechanism without human intervention | - | REM 2 | The drone must be able to extinguish for at least 1 minute | 1007926 |
| REM 3 | The extinguish mechanism must use foam | 0885378 | |||
| REM 4 | The foam used may not cause damage to the drone or environment when using it | 1005735 | |||
| REM 5 | The mechanism must be refillable after usage | 1010326 | |||
| REM 6 | Weight should not exceed 1 kilo | ||||
| REM 7 | The mechanism should not disturb the stability and flying capablilities of the drone |
Extinguish mechanism
Since the drone has to be able to extinguish fires unmanned, and preferably autonomous, it must have an electro-mechanical extinguish mechanism of some sort. An actuator attached to the drone should be able to control the stream of suppressant (at least on or off). Furthermore, the stream of suppressant should be ejected to the front (or sides) of the drone through a nozzle. A drone cannot fly directly above fire since the air will be too turbulent and therefore the suppressant cannot just be dropped underneath the drone. There should also be a container to hold all of the suppressant.
The actual mechanism will depend on the suppressant that will be used. It could consist of a solenoid valve, since this type of valves can be controlled electronically. The driving force behind the suppressant can be a preloaded pressure in the container, a pump or a chemical reaction. This also depends on the used type of suppressant and the design of the container.
Extinguishing using a solid aerosol (blusstaaf)
One option we found is a ‘blusstaaf’. This is a complete aerosol extinguisher with an electrical activation. It weighs 250 grams, has 45 grams of suppressant and can extinguish for 30 seconds. They cost 39,95 a piece. Because this price is a bit steep and to maybe have a lighter and more compact system, we also want to look at the possibility of making the aerosol suppressant, container and electrical activation ourselves in a way that is more suitable for the drone.
Extinguishing using a small pump
Since it's not sure if the blusstaaf mechanism is possible/available in this timescale different extinguish mechanisms have been designed. These mechanisms are all water based since this is much easier to realize for the prototype of the drone. There are two possibilities to make an automated extinguish system using water. One using a compressed air and the other one using an electric waterpump. In the first picture below a mechanism using an electric waterpump is shown. There are lots of suitable pumps available (example [1]). This design exists of a water container (blue box), power supply, remote activation mechanism, pump (yellow box), small water hoze (green), nozzle (orange) and air inlet for water container (red). This last piece is required to let the pump work, without it the pressure in the container will go to a vacuum and water cannot come out to extinguish.
[1] https://www.conrad.nl/p/laagspanning-dompelpomp-barwig-0444-600-lh-6-m-539090
Attachment
The drone makes use of an ultrasound sensor, which is located at the center of the bottom, to determine its height. This limits our ability to attach anything to the bottom of the drone in the center. One option would be to attach two extinguishers on the bottom next to the center, as shown in the picture below.
This would increase extinguish capability but also the weight. We would have to test if the drone is capable of lifting over 500 grams.
Another option is to attach the extinguisher on the top of the drone, but far enough to the front that the suppressant will not be sucked into the propellers. The figure below shows how the blusstaaf could be attached to the top of the drone, using two attachment parts (blue). These parts can clamp around the cylindrical shape of the blusstaaf and can be attached to the drone using adhesive velcro tape, to ensure the extinguisher can be removed easily. The attachment part in the back also has space for the electronics that will be used to activate the blusstaaf. Placing the electronics in the back also helps balancing the weight of the drone.
The front part would be attached to the extension of the drone frame that holds the camera:
The attachment parts can be made using a 3D printer. The advantage of having 3D printed parts is that they can be very lightweight and can have custom shape which will fit our drone and extinguisher. If 3D printing is no option, wood could be used as an alternative. Wood can also be relatively lightweight.
Activation
The parrot AR drone, which we chose to use for the demo, is controlled with an app via wifi. We can’t however extend this connection with a separate channel for the extinguisher activation. Therefore, we will have to use a separate transmitter and receiver. The real drone will have this channel integrated into its main receiver. To activate the blusstaaf, a button has to be pressed which makes a connection to the battery (for any solid aerosol extinguishers with electrical ignition, a connection has to be made to a power source). A better way to control the activation is to replace the button with a relay which makes a connection when it receives a voltage. A remotely controlled relay can be bought [1] for just under 5 euros.
A schematic of a system like this is shown below.
Drone
drone requirements go here
Drone for prototype
We have borrowed a drone which can be controlled by hand. It is equipped with an ultrasound based altitude sensor and two cameras: one facing down and one facing forward. The drone can carry about 0.5 Kg for a really short time if and only if the battery is fully charged. We will need to attach a structure to it which can hold and use an extinguisher. The drone is not programmable unfortunately. There was an alternative drone available to use which could carry a bit more and is programmable, however it does not have out of the box control software present, so we would need to write code which controlls each propellor seperately and create our own stabilisation software and so on. The drone we use accepts instructions like "go forward", "rotate left" "lower altitude" ect. We think writing control software for the more advanced drone would take up (way) to much time, therefor we go for the simpler non programable drone.