The firefighting robot

In late 2017, when watching TV news about large fires in HCM City and Hanoi, Le Mai Huong and Tran Van Tuan from Lam Mong Quang Secondary School in Thua Thien- Hue Province discussed how fires in small alleys could be reached.

The two students decided to meet Truong Phuc, their teacher.

“At that moment, I just smiled and told them to spend time to prepare for the competition for excellent students. But the next day Huong said she wanted to create a firefighting robot with remote control,” Phuc said.

“I realized tthis was a good idea and we set to work immediately,” he said.

Asked why she chose RF waves, Huong said RF has average wavelength, with frequency ranging from 3Khz to 300Ghz. This is a common wave used for remote control of children's toy cars.

Using a RF controller, firefighters standing at a safe position more than 50 meters away from the fire can direct the robot to move to the site to extinguish the fire.

The materials for Huong and Tuan’s robots were components of old electronic products, including microchips from old computers’ CPUs and two DC motors from computers’ fans. 

The engine that lifts or lowers the water pipe is from an old car and the remote controller from a children’s toy. There is only one new component in the robot – an infrared camera worth VND600,000.

The robot is designed in a way so that it can overcome all kinds of terrains to reach  sites to extinguish fires. It can move forward, backward, or turn right or left.

As a robot, it can work in severe conditions with dust, smoke or radioactive substances. The camera installed on the robot can transmit images of the sites and this can be done even in areas with no wi-fi.

Huong and Tuan are still working on the robot, planning to use temperature and object sensors, infrared beams and surveillance cameras to make the robot more ‘powerful’ which can see through smoke and dust and anticipate danger. 

In addition, they are developing a ladder system that allows the robot to climb up multi-storey buildings to extinguish fires at a height which fire trucks cannot reach.

Phuc said both Huong and Tuan are excellent and creative students. They were able to complete the product within four months.

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Mai Thanh