Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 3, No. 3 (December 2016), 201-204

Research on visualized search and rescue robot
Fengzhi Dai1, Qijia Kang1, Yuanli Yue1, Pengfei Xie1
1Tianjin University of Science and Technology,
1038 Dagunanlu Road, Hexi District, Tianjin, 300222, China
E-mail:daifz@tust.edu.cn
www.tust.edu.cn

Abstract
Faced to the weakness of the low efficiency and limitation of the recent search and rescue robot, this paper presents
a visualized search and rescue robot based on the Arduino platform. The infrared detector is used to detect life, andthe camera can transmit the information back to the mobile phone or computer terminal in real-time. The track
wheel improves the capability of shuttle and over obstacle. It can partly replace humans to finish the task under thedangerous environment and search-and-rescue person in the confined space.
Keywords: visualized, infrared detector, track, search and rescue

1. Introduction
Since 1980s, the concept of search and rescue robot has
been presented. With the rapid development of scienceand technology, the application of the search and rescue
robots become wider1. By its superior mobility and well
adapt ability in various environments, the search andrescue robot has already been used on different fields,
for example, the earthquake rescue robots. It is a robotthat are used to search for survivors under the rubble
after the earthquake, which is equipped with a color
camera, thermography and communication system2.
The robot can replace the rescue workers into thedangerous environment, then implement the rescue
work and transport the necessary supplies for thetrapped persons3.
The search and rescue robot is different from thehousehold robot or industrial robot. Its working
environment is uncertain and dangerous. Search andrescue robots generally have the following advantages4,5:• Walking through the ruins to detect signs of life
freely with small size and flexible operator.
• Having strong adaptability in various environment,
which can arrive at the high temperature and high•pressure place where the rescue workers can not
arrive in.
Being equipped with functional sensors anddetection equipment, such as the infrared detector
and camera searching for survivors. Using lithiumion batteries with low power consumption and long
battery working time6.

2. The structural design
In the paper, a new visualized rescue robot is developedthat is adapt to the complex environment and has more
powerful rescue capability.
First, the search and rescue robot enters the rescue
scene. Second, it gathers the information by sensors.
And finally, it uses the camera to transmit images to themobile phone or computer terminal real-time bywireless technology.
Also, the robot should have the following functions:
excellent overstepping and feedback capabilities in realtime.
The structural design of the search and rescue robots
is shown in Fig.1.

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Fengzhi Dai, Qijia Kang ,Yuanli Yue, Pengfei Xie

chassismanipulator

motor and drive

sensors

HardwareFig.3. Crawler design of the chassis

SoftwareModule ofinfrared
detector forsurvivor

Module ofvisualization

Real-time
monitoring ofmobile terminal

Fig.1 The structural design of search and rescue robots

2.1. Manipulator
The search and rescue robot has a six degree of freedom
mechanical arm (manipulator). When a small obstacle isin front of the robot, the robot can easily catch andthrow it by the arm. If the obstacle is large, the arm
helps the robot to climb over it.
The manipulator is made up of the upper arm, lower
arm and rotary frame. The upper arm and lower arm are
mounted on the rotating frame by two large torque servo
to drive7, which has enough strength to carry goods.
For the manipulator, the rotating angle of each rotaryframe can reach to 180o, and the gyration radius is355mm, the maximum height is 460mm (the gripper
closed), the maximum value of the opening in front of
the gripper is 55mm and the widest range of the clipped
goods is 98mm. The manipulator is shown in the Fig.2.

The rhombus frame structure is accepted and thematerial selected guarantees the frame's strength as well
as lower weight. The crawler mechanical structure issuitable to improve the ability of climbing and has goodability to climb over obstacles.
2.3. The circuit control
Circuit control includes the main control chip, driving
motor, sensing scheme and remote signal transmission
module. The sensing scheme includes a variety ofsensing modules. For example, rotating machine armmodule, visual operation module and the humaninfrared sensor module for detecting life characteristics.
2.3.1 Main control chip
The control circuit chooses the ATmega128-AU as themain chip, which is used to control and deal with avariety of information sampled from sensors. Its voltage
is 3.3-5V and it has 16M high speed crystal, which canprovide a high clock frequency. The main control chip
have a high processing speed, so it can process the datafrom sensors in real time.
ATmega128 is a CMOS 8 bit microcontroller that isbased on the AVR with low power and highperformance. The structure of the AVR is the Harvard,
with independent data and program bus. ATmega128
contains 4K bytes EEPROM, which can meet the needsof the program. ATmega128 is shown in Fig.4.

Fig.2. Rotating mechanical arm

2.2. Chassis structure
In the mechanical design process, the main part is thechassis, which determines maneuvering capability and it
is important for overstepping obstacles.
Fig.3 is the chassis of the robot. In the front of the car
tracks, there is an oblique angle (as shown in Fig.3).
This structure can greatly enhance the ability to climb
over obstacles.

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Fig.4. Main control chip ATmega128

Research on visualized search

2.3.2 Motor selection

3.2. The function of visualization

Large torque motor can provide enough power in the
progress of moving. Therefore, the robot uses 37GB500 permanent-magnet direct current speed reduction
motor, whose rated voltage is 1.5-36V, rated speed is 53000 (rpm) and rated torque is 0.02-30 (NM).

Vision is important to the robot. Visualization is theprimary function to get the environment information for
rescuer in real-time.
The situation in dangerous areas or in ruins may be
dark or has poor light. If the rescuer uses the intenselight to search, it may cause the secondary damage tothe eyes of the affected people. In order to avoid thisproblem, the infrared camera is selected. The camera
should also have the functions of wireless transmission
and video recording, which can provide valuable data
for the disaster relief.
Two geared motors are used to control the camera torotate freely horizontally and vertically.
The camera has the following features:• The module of wireless transmission optimizes H.
264 lossless compression arithmetic. This method
can decrease the amount of transmission data andtime effectively, and also ensure the high imagequality.
• With the infrared light, the camera automaticallyswitches between the modes of day and night by theIR-CUT. By this way, it can guarantee the accuracy
and clarity in the image transmission when thedisaster scene is in poor light8,9.
• The camera has the TF card slot, by which thevideo and image information can be saved in therescue and relief operations. Therefore, it isconvenient to optimize the rescue path in theprogress of the follow-up succor based on the savedvideos.
• The visual angle is 360 degrees and the camera canrotate 80 degrees to ensure video capture in narrow
space.

3. Introduction of functional modules
With a variety of auxiliary functional modules, thesearch and rescue robot can get the location informationand life characteristics of the trapped personnel. The
robot is shown in Fig.5.

Fig.5. The overall structure figure

3.1. Infrared detector for searching survivors
The robot can search and rescue the trapped person indangerous areas or in ruins. Therefore, the infrared
detector for searching survivors is needed.
As we know, all the objects will transmit the infrared
spectrum (only if its absolute temperature exceeds 273oC). But they have different wavelengths in theinfrared spectrum. According to this natural
phenomenon, it can be applied to search and rescue thetrapped person.
Normally, for the human beings, the bodytemperature is 36~37oC and the wavelength of infraredspectrum transmitted is 9~10μm. Thus, the pyroelectric
infrared detector is used, and the sensors of the infrared
detector is shown in Fig.6 .

4. Some important functions
4.1. Obstacle overstepping
Capability of overstepping is an important measure on
the robot. When the robot encounters obstacle, it canclear obstacles by the manipulator. If the obstacle islarge, the robot should cross or overstep the obstacle.
4.2. Collecting parameters in spot environment

Fig.6. The infrared detector

The robot needs to arrive at the accident scene andimplement the search and rescue mission, which
requires the robot to gather information accurately andefficiently. The main functions are as follows:
capturing video, searching for the survivors by theinfrared detector and transmitting the information inreal-time.

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Fengzhi Dai, Qijia Kang ,Yuanli Yue, Pengfei Xie

4.3. Feedback capability

Acknowledgements

Visualization is a major function to the search andrescue robots, which can send information of locationback to the outside world. Therefore, relief workers canget environment information and physical condition of
the trapped personnel in real-time. So that the relief
workers can use these provided information for rescue
that the robot cannot do.

The research is partly supported by the Research Fundfor the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China(20131208110005). It is also supported by the Science& Technology Fund Planning Project of Tianjin Higher
Schools (20140710-1400020005).

5. Testing and conclusion
By the test of the search and rescue robot, the following
data is obtained: The maximum height of the barrier thatthe robot can climb cross is 120 mm, the maximum
angle of climbing is 38 degrees, the maximum range ofdetection is a circle of radius 1m, the maximum distanceof transmission is 22m. The above data shows that therobot can basically meet the needs of rescue10.
In the paper, a kind of visualized rescue robot isdesigned. The design of walking manner is based on thecrawler structure with an oblique angle, and cooperates
with the manipulator, which improves the ability ofclimbing.
And by using the camera and the technology ofwireless transmission, the image and video can betransmitted to the control terminal in real-time. At thesame time, with the sensors of infrared detector forsearching the wounded personnel, the rescue robot candetect the affected person on a wide range.
The test includes the ability of climbing, the accuracyof infrared detector and the relationship between
wireless transmission distance and the obstacle. Finally,
the test result shows that the visualized search andrescue robot has a good ability to overcome obstacles
and can basically meet the needs of rescue.

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