Robots to the rescue

摘要

Afirefighter in a smoke filled building is 'blind'. For his own safety he has to move slowly and cautiously in a situation where every second counts. A guide dog might help. But of course in a smoke filled room a guide dog would be equally blind and its sense of smell would be of no help at all, even assuming its lungs could cope. But a project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) may cut vital seconds from the firefighter's journey through that smoke filled building. Researchers from King's College London and Sheffield Hallam University have replaced the hypothetical guide dog with a robot system that guides in much the same way. Only, unlike a dog, this robot has whiskers that sense any obstruction hidden by the smoke. The robot then transmits data about the size, shape and even the stiffness of any object it finds up a special 1.5 metre 'rein' connecting the robot to an electronic sleeve covering the fireman's arm. The sleeve 'tells' the firefighter about the obstruction using a pattern of vibration that the firefighter has been taught to understand, and the communication is not only one way, as Dr Thrishan-tha Nanayakkara of King's College explains: "The reins help the robot measure the firefighter's degree of confidence. They do this by conveying the pull exerted by the firefighter on the reins and also his movement. We call this 'viscosity'. Increased viscosity means decreased confidence and the robot will slow its pace."