Cubelets - Movable Fire Detector

Abstract

The project is about to reinvent the mechanism to identify Fire in domestic environment. Popular options available nowadays are static device installed on the ceiling, and recognize some indicators of Fire, like wavelength, and temperature. These devices are good but the rate of false alarm is high and it responds slowly. In this project, a new robotic system, Cubelets, is used to address the problem of slow reaction and immobility. This new robotic system is still under development and is not complete and therefore it have some limitations and challenges: For example, small set of API can be used in controlling the behavior of different blocks; Lack of precise sensor makes the measurement is not always correct; Mechanical error accumulates overtime, and the cause could be unavoidable like dust jammed into the wheel; Every block is an independent computing unit, having slightly different clock speed and clock drift, therefore the blocks could be desynchronized and affect the entire behavior. The focus of the project is to build a movable Fire detector robot using Cubelets, and thus the problems mentioned above were solved in the project. Here are the highlights of the works done: Motion Synchronization; Hot-swap mechanism, Fire Recognition, and Noise Cancelling. Test results has shown evidence that the robot built fulfilled the requirement. The robot is capable to sweep through the surrounding in 360 degree. It does recognize luminance threshold and keep monitoring to see if the sensor readings matches the characteristics of fire. If so, an alarm is raised and the robot could navigate to the fire, then leave and continue its routine check after the fire is put down.