Raspberry Pi Rescue Robot
The Scouting Owl Project
A rescue robot can play an important role in searching for endangered individuals and studying hazardous conditions. Learn how these Cornell students built a Raspberry Pi 4-based robot that allows rescuers to detect and communicate with endangered individuals in an environment that is not yet suitable for in-person rescue.
Topics Discussed
How can a robot help in rescue situations?What is a rescue robot?How to design hardware for a rescue robot?How to design software for a rescue robot?What are the Android applications to control a robot remotely?
Tech Used
AMG8833 IR Thermal Imager Array Temperature Sensor 8x8 Infrared Camera SensorMini USB MicrophoneJBL Go SpeakerWater Level SensorFlame SensorAnalog Temperature SensorUltrasonic SensorMCP3008Raspberry Pi 4Robot Kit
In incidents such as fire, earthquake, flood, gas leakage or any environment that has potential threats to the life of a rescuer, a rescue robot can play an important role in searching for endangered individuals and studying hazardous conditions. For increased safety of first responders, an autonomous robot that can detect endangered individuals, avoid obstacles, scout the environment and communicate with endangered individuals in extreme environments would be a desirable safety improvement.
SYSTEM OVERVIEW
Scouting Owl is a robot that allows the rescuers to detect and communicate with endangered individuals in an environment that is not yet suitable for in-person rescue. To perform the critical rescue task, we built a robot based on a Raspberry Pi 4, with the following functions: 1) a reliable half-duplex connection between the robot and the control device; 2) fetching and displaying live IR camera feed along with sensor data on the display device; 3) remote control of the robot through an Android App; and 4) mapping the surrounding area (Figure 1).
HARDWARE DESIGN
The diagram in Figure 2 shows the wiring of our system. Sensors and ac