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DESIGN and IMPLEMENTATION of an AUTONOMOUS FIRE FIGHTING ROBOT a Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the Univ

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DESIGN and IMPLEMENTATION of an AUTONOMOUS FIRE FIGHTING ROBOT a Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the Univ DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AUTONOMOUS FIRE FIGHTING ROBOT A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Guelph by DILIP PARMAR In partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science April, 2011 © Dilip Parmar, 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-80013-3 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-80013-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada ABSTRACT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AUTONOMOUS FIRE FIGHTING ROBOT Dilip Parmar Advisor: University of Guelph, 2011 Professor Simon X. Yang The concept of engineering robots has become increasingly popular in last decades. Industrial and commercial businesses that can afford the cost of robotic systems, have introduced them into their manufacturing processes. These technologies are not popular at the consumer level, since it can become costly. In this thesis a fire fighting robot is designed and compared with others that have been created. By combining different technologies, we can create a robotic system that would detect a flame and extinguish it before it becomes disastrous. The requirements of such technology would require the robot to navigate through its environment, find the flame and safely extinguish it. A mobile robot with these characteristics involves many different disciplines. There are four main systems that create this robot; mobility, obstacle avoidance, flame detection and flame extinguishing. Mobility consists of motor control though programmable logic and circuit integration. Obstacle avoidance is designed through the relations between echo pulses and timing. Flame detection uses a novel search method based on algorithms for patterns of a flame. Lastly, the flame extinguisher uses the same system as a fire extinguisher would, except it uses water as a source. Analysis and design of fuzzy control laws are implemented to create the robots behaviours. Using these systems we can create a low cost robot that would help to bring technologies home. Dedication To my family and friends. Acknowledgment I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Simon Yang in helping me to pursue my graduate studies and research in the field of Engineering. I want to express my sincere gratitude for all the guidance and support he has given me. I would like to thank Dr. Fantahun Defersha for being part of my advisory commit­ tee and providing valuable suggestions and advice. I appreciate Dr. Stefano Gregori for being the chair for my defence and for his suggestions and advice. I would like to thank my family for allowing me to continue my studies. Special thanks to my sister who has contributed so much over the years and her contribution to this thesis. Without all their support, I could not have finished this thesis. n Contents List of Tables vi List of Figures vii List of Symbols x 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Statement of Problems 4 1.2 Objective of this Thesis 5 1.3 The Proposed Method 6 1.4 Contributions of this Thesis 7 1.5 Organization of this Thesis 8 2 Background 10 2.1 Autonomous Robot Navigation 12 2.2 Sensors 13 2.2.1 Obstacle Detection 13 2.2.2 Flame Detection 14 2.3 Behaviour-Based Control 15 2.4 Fuzzy Control 16 2.4.1 Fuzzy Sets and Membership Functions 17 2.4.2 Fuzzy Logic Control 18 3 Literature Survey 20 3.1 Fire Fighting Robots 20 3.2 Sensor Fusion 24 3.2.1 Ultrasonic Sensors 24 iii 3.2.2 Flame Sensors 29 3.3 Fuzzy Control 30 4 The Developed Fire Fighting Robot System 33 4.1 Introduction 33 4.2 Mechanical Design 35 4.2.1 Motor Design 35 4.2.2 Sensor Design 39 4.2.3 Flame Retardant 43 4.2.4 Control System 44 4.2.5 Power Supply 47 4.3 The Kinematics of the Robot 47 4.4 Implementation 49 4.5 Summary 51 5 Obstacle Avoidance Using Fuzzy Logic 52 5.1 Introduction 52 5.2 The Concept of Ultrasonic Sensors 55 5.3 Fuzzy Control for Obstacle Avoidance 56 5.3.1 Fuzzification 57 5.3.2 Inference Mechanism 58 5.3.3 Defuzzification 62 5.4 Experiments 63 5.5 Summary 65 6 Target Approaching using Sensor Fusion and Fuzzy Logic 67 6.1 Introduction 68 6.2 Design of a CdS Photocell Sensor 69 6.3 Sensor Placement and Detection 70 6.4 Fuzzy Control for Target Approaching 73 6.5 Experiments 78 6.6 Summary 79 iv 7 A Novel Approach for Extinguishing a Flame 80 7.1 Introduction 81 7.2 Proposed Approach 82 7.2.1 Extinguishing System 82 7.2.2 Fuzzy Control and System Design 84 7.3 Experiments 87 7.4 Summary 89 8 Experimental Results 90 8.1 Fire Fighting Experiments 90 8.2 Summary 95 9 Discussions 96 9.1 Safety 96 9.2 Reliability 97 9.3 Commercialization 98 10 Conclusion and Future Work 100 10.1 Conclusions 100 10.2 Future Work 102 References 103 Appendix A: The Control Program for the Fire Fighting Robot 111 v List of Tables 4.1 Distances versus time in milliseconds (Dean, 2001) 42 5.1 Typical values for sensor (Parallax INC, 2009) 56 5.2 Rules for ultrasonic sensors 59 6.1 Rules for flame detection 77 7.1 Rules for extinguishing a flame 86 9.1 Robot cost evaluation 98 VI List of Figures 2.1 Basic fuzzy control system 18 3.1 Florida International University's robot (from Dubel et al., 2003) 22 3.2 Large Fire Fighting Robot (from Parekh, 2006) 22 3.3 First INtelligent Extinguisher (Fine) (from Rajni, 2009) 23 3.4 Location of the ultrasonic sensors (from Le et al., 2007) 25 3.5 Movement of robot in 3 different instances (from Le et al., 2007) 26 3.6 Detecting experimental board (from Luo et al., 2007) 26 3.7 Vertical plane used for testing (a) and the exploration results of the verti­ cal plane (b) (from Luo et al., 2007) 27 3.8 Cambered surface used for testing (a) and exploration results of cambered surface (b) (from Luo et al., 2007) 28 3.9 UV Tron's spectral response and various light source (from Hamamatsu, 1998) 30 3.10 Architecture block diagram (from Abreu & Correia, 2001) 32 4.1 The designed fire fighting robot 34 4.2 AutoCAD render of the base of the robot 36 4.3 Tires and motors (from RobotShop, 2009) 37 4.4 H-Bridge designed by Bolt (from Seale, 2003) 38 4.5 AutoCAD caster wheel drawings (top and side view) 39 4.6 Sensor placement on the robot 40 4.7 Ultrasonic sensing path (from Parallax INC, 2009) 40 vii 4.8 Sensing angle for the robot 41 4.9 Ultrasonic sensor 42 4.10 CdS photocell sensor 43 4.11 The schematic of the control design 45 4.12 Control boards for the fire fighting robot 45 4.13 Electronic schematic for the H-bridge control board 46 4.14 Electronic schematic for the microcontroller control board 46 4.15 Electronic schematic for the fire extinguishing system control board 47 4.16 The robot represented in Cartesian and polar coordinate systems 49 5.1 Signals from the ultrasonic sensor (from Parallax INC, 2019) 56 5.2 Block diagram of the fuzzy controller 57 5.3 Input membership functions for distance 58 5.4 Obstacle avoidance example 60 5.5 Cornering avoidance example 61 5.6 Angles and sensory placement for the robot 62 5.7 Output membership functions for motor direction 63 5.8 Robot on ceramic tiled floor exploring the kitchen 64 5.9 Robot on ceramic tiled floor steering its way through a corridor 65 5.10 Robot on carpet floor getting out of a corner 65 5.11 Robot on carpet floor steering its way under a chair 65 6.1 Circuitry of CdS photocell sensor 70 6.2 Placement of sensors 72 6.3 Sensor fuzzy controller block diagram 74 6.4 CdS photocell input membership functions 75 6.5 Distance input membership functions when a flame is detected 75 6.6 Flame detection example 77 6.7 Output membership functions for the motor direction 78 viii 7.1 Water and air vessel set-up 83 7.2 Electronics for electronic hose clamp 83 7.3 Electronic hose clamp and main power switch 84 7.4 Fuzzy controller block diagram for the fire fighting robot 85 7.5 Output membership functions for the FES control 88 8.1 Test one layout 92 8.2 Test one results 92 8.3 Test two layout 93 8.4
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