In a catastrophic scenario why risk your life in recognizing the interior of a collapsed building? A small electronic "miracle" was developed by a group of students of Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications of the University of Aveiro (UA) and aims to be a precious help when all the minutes are essential to save lives.
It is a robot capable of entering the debris, which can map the space in three dimensions, detect fires and measure temperature, humidity and carbon monoxide, in real time and send the data abroad. Small and autonomous, this electronic device was conceived by 15 students of the Integrated Master in Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications within the scope of the curricular unit of Electrical Engineering Project taught by professor Nuno Borges Carvalho. The robot is already in the prototype phase and waiting for all the support, in the future, to be fundamental in the work of Civil Protection. To this end, students have already outlined the HART (Human Aid Robotic Technologies), a company that, when born, will support the development and commercialization of the robot.
Unique design in a market where there are abundant solutions focused essentially for military environments and that make use of the cameras only for image collection, the robot also has for novelty the ability to dispense an operator since, say the students of the Department of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics , in the final stage of development the robot will be able to move and acquire information autonomously.
At 1.5 kilograms and 23 by 28 centimeters, the electronic device can easily be used in all scenarios that need to measure environmental conditions and where obtaining a three-dimensional model can be useful. In these scenarios students include fires, partial collapses, caves, demolitions, and reconnaissance, search and rescue operations.
The robot can also be used to assist in assessing the integrity and extent of damage in a building affected by a claim. From inside the debris the automaton will be able to report on the temperature, humidity, concentration of carbon monoxide and presence of fires. It will also be possible to visualize a three-dimensional model of the space where the robot is located.
All these data will be made available in real time to the rescue teams through a computer application created for this purpose, where the information is presented in a clear, simple and concise way, to accelerate the process of analysis and decision making.
At this stage of development, the students point out, the robot is already able to do the environmental sensing and generate the respective 3D model. Soon, it will be the turn of the implementation of the ability to acquire and superimpose various 3D models and the installation of the autonomous movement.