A Guided Vehicle under Fire Conditions Based on a Modified Ultrasonic Obstacle Avoidance Technology

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Autonomous Systems
• Sensor Technology
• Fire Safety Engineering

Background:

• Fire rescue operations are hindered by low visibility and high temperatures.
• Ultrasound obstacle avoidance technology offers potential for guidance in such environments.
• Accurate distance measurement using ultrasound is challenging due to high temperatures and soot.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a baffle calibration method for improving ultrasound distance measurement accuracy under fire conditions.
• To enhance the reliability of ultrasound guidance systems for fire rescue robots.
• To compare the proposed method against existing techniques for distance measurement under fire scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Development of a baffle calibration method using two ultrasound measurement systems.
• One system calibrates ultrasound propagation speed using a fixed baffle.
• The second system dynamically measures obstacle distances using the calibrated speed.
• Experimental validation on a guided vehicle under simulated fire conditions.

Main Results:

• The baffle calibration method significantly reduces distance measurement errors compared to constant speed and temperature compensation methods.
• Maximum errors with the baffle calibration method were 2.75% and 2.62% in representative fire scenarios.
• Constant speed and temperature compensation methods showed significantly higher maximum errors (up to 10.4%).

Conclusions:

• The proposed baffle calibration method is effective in improving ultrasound distance measurement accuracy in challenging fire environments.
• This method enhances the viability of ultrasound guidance systems for autonomous navigation in fires.
• The baffle calibration method offers superior performance over existing techniques for fire rescue applications.