A Study on the Fire-Related Disaster Response

Scenarios in the Philippines using Robot Technology

by

Francis Gerald L. Enriquez

Bernard Benedict R. Mendoza
Angelo John F. Tenorio

A Research Report Submitted to the School of Electrical, Electronics and

Computer Engineering in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering

Mapúa University
July 2020
 APPROVAL SHEET

This is to certify that we have supervised the preparation of and read the research report
prepared by Francis Gerald L. Enriquez, Bernard Benedict R. Mendoza, and Angelo
John F. Tenorio entitled A Study on the Disaster Response Scenarios using Robot
Technology and that the said research report has been submitted for final examination by the
Oral Examination Committee.

Isagani Villamor
Type Adviser

As members of the Oral Examination Committee, we certify that we have examined this
research report, presented before the committee on July 2020, and hereby recommend that it
be accepted as fulfillment of research report requirement for the degree in Bachelor of
Science in Computer Engineering.

Engr. Analyn Yumang Engr. Leonardo Valiente

Panel Member Panel Member

Firstname M. Lastname
Committee Chairman
This research report is hereby approved and accepted by the School of Electrical, Electronics
and Computer Engineering as a fulfillment of the research report requirement for the degree
in Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering.

Engr. Noel B. Linsangan

Dean, School of Electrical,
Electronics and Computer
Engineering
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our deepest ‘thank you’ LORD for all the gifts You have given us and for directing our path
to the following persons who helped us in the completion of our research report.

To Engr. Isagani Villamor, our class adviser, who patiently guided and taught us with
lessons we need for this research;

To our friends who continuously support us; and

To our families who never get tired of helping and loving us.

Francis Gerald L. Enriquez

Bernard Benedict R. Mendoza
Angelo John Tenorio

iv
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE i

APPROVAL PAGE ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

ABSTRACT viii

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

Chapter 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 3

System and software architecture for autonomous surveillance robots in

urban environments 3
A SmArt Rapiro Robot Integrating a Framework for Automatic High-Level
Surveillance Event Detection 3
DDT Project on Rescue Robots and Systems 3
Verification of Scenario for Robot-Assisted Fire-Fighting and Rescue
Operations 4

Chapter 3: A Study on the Disaster Response Scenarios using Robot Technology 5

Abstract 5

Introduction 5

v
 Methodology 7

Results and Discussion 12

Conclusion 16

Chapter 4: CONCLUSION 17
Chapter 5: RECOMMENDATION 18

REFERENCES 19

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1: Aspects of the Drone 13

TABLE 2: Aspects of the Armored Robot 14

vi
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1: Thermal imaging overview in an actual scenario 7

FIGURE 2: Overview on how thermal imaging works 7
FIGURE 3: Algorithm inserted in the drone 9
FIGURE 4: Armored Robot Design 10
FIGURE 5: Algorithm of the Program 11
FIGURE 6: Drone with a thermal camera image 12
FIGURE 7: Final design of the fire and impact resistant armored robot with a hose 12

vii
 ABSTRACT

Fire-related disasters are common here in the Philippines especially during summer.
Firefighters are exposed in risk during rescue operations. The purpose of this study is to
create a drone with a memory for its database and a thermal imaging camera to give
firefighters an overview of the fire scene. Also, this study aims to design an armored robot
responsible for guiding firefighters to the location of trapped civilians and handling the
debris. Designing these prototypes proves a high effectivity in reducing the risks taken by
firefighters during rescue operations.

Keywords: fire-related disasters, thermal imaging, armored-robot, database

viii
 Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Many innovations have changed the pace of the world. These innovations

successfully show the capability and creativity of the human mind. Human’s

intellectual capacity is, without a doubt, the best among any others creatures in the

world. However, what if disasters like earthquakes and fire related disasters

happen? Humans’ physical abilities have limitations. In fact, most humans cannot

stand in a complicated and chaotic environment caused by these disasters. To bridge

the gap in this limitation, humans can design a disaster response robot. It greatly

increases human productivity and human force in responding to disasters or any

scenarios in life. A robot that focuses on responding to fire related disasters and

rescue operations is a great step forward to approach these scenarios.

Fire related disasters are common here in the Philippines, especially during summer.

Firefighters are risking their lives to put out the fire and rescue trapped civilians. However,

there are lots of difficult things to deal with in a fire disaster. Firefighters are exposed to

toxic gases, large fire, falling debris, and so on. These things make their work more difficult

to the extent that some lives are risked and lost. We also need them to have a clear vision of

what is happening in the fire area. A drone with thermal imaging for surveillance and a fire

and impact resistant robot programmed to rescue civilians will greatly increase the success

rate of rescue operations in a harsh environment without risking the lives of the firefighters.

1
 The main objective of this study is to produce a fire and impact resistant robot which

can help in rescuing trapped civilians during fire incidents. Moroever, the researchers aim to

design a drone with a capability to acquire the location of trapped civilians and all other vital

information inside the burning house or building.

The conclusion of this study will help firefighters to implement rescue operations

safely; therefore, preventing the risk on their lives during rescue operations.

This study only focuses on fire related disasters, and it will revolve in designing a

drone and a rescue reponse robot. The prototypes will therefore go in a simulation to test its

capability and efficiency.

2
 Chapter 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

System and software architecture for autonomous surveillance robots in urban

environments

In this study, the surveillance robots’ architecture consists of two parts: navigation part

which can drive the robot simultaneously and a semantic software which performs security

missions. The proposed design made the robot to perform security missions. [1]

A SmArt Rapiro Robot Integrating a Framework for Automatic High-Level

Surveillance Event Detection

This research aims to improve the surveillance capacity of the Rapiro robot. The

architecture of the system involves image processing, interval action detector, high-level

detector, and a Rapiro Robot. This study believes that high quality monitoring camera can

give important information while doing surveillance. Camera movement is also improved to

view the surroundings at different angles. [2]

DDT Project on Rescue Robots and Systems

This study presented MEXT DDT Project which focuses on large scale earthquakes.

There are four prototypes introduced in order to perform search and rescue. First is the Aero

robots MU responsible for the aerial surveillance, second is the On-Rubble Type/

underground robots responsible for uneven and underground surface, third is the In-Rubble
3
Robots responsible for the searching inside the destroyed building and lastly is the

Infrastracture MU for information interrogation. [3]

Verification of Scenario for Robot-Assisted Fire-Fighting and Rescue Operations

This research presents the robot “Scott” as a verificator robot. “Scott” is a crawler

type robot that has a two link manipulator and four sub crawlers. Its rotational axis for the

sub crawler allows “Scott” to handle uneven areas. TPIP ( Sanritz Automation Inc.) is used

for “Scott’s” control and communication unit. Four cameras, CO2 sensor, thermal imaging

camera, laser range finder, and gas concentration measurement are also installed on “Scott”.

[4]

Multi-robot task allocation for fire-disaster response based on reinforcement learning

This research designed a multi-robot task allocation algorithm to make the robot

functional on rescue operations. This robot however does not provide a surveillance of the

area. The robot is only responsible for rescuing and taking out fire infront of its way.

4
 Chapter 3

A Study on the Disaster Response Scenarios using Robot Technology

Abstract

Fire-related disasters are common here in the Philippines especially during summer.
Firefighters are exposed to risk during rescue operations. The purpose of this study is to
create a drone with a memory for its database and a thermal imaging camera to give
firefighters an overview of the fire scene. Also, this study aims to design an armored robot
responsible for guiding firefighters to the location of trapped civiliansand handling the
debris. Designing these prototypes proves a high effectivity in reducing the risks taken by
firefighters during rescue operations.

Introduction

Many innovations have changed the pace of the world. These innovations

successfully show the capability and creativity of the human mind. Human’s

intellectual capacity is, without a doubt, the best among any others creatures in the

world. However, what if disasters like earthquakes and fire related disasters

happen? Humans’ physical abilities have limitations. In fact, most humans cannot

stand in a complicated and chaotic environment caused by these disasters. To bridge

the gap in this limitation, humans can design a disaster response robot. It greatly

increases human productivity and human force in responding to disasters or any

scenarios in life. A robot that focuses on responding to fire related disasters and

rescue operations is a great step forward to approach these scenarios.

Fire related disasters are common here in the Philippines, especially during summer.

Firefighters are risking their lives to put out the fire and rescue trapped civilians. However,
5
there are lots of difficult things to deal with in a fire disaster. Firefighters are exposed to

toxic gases, large fire, falling debris, and so on. These things make their work more difficult

to the extent that some lives are risked and lost. A fire and impact resistant robot

programmed to rescue civilians will greatly increase the success rate of rescue operations in a

harsh environment without risking the lives of the firefighters.

The main objective of this study is to produce a fire and impact resistant robot which

can help in rescuing trapped civilians during fire incidents. Additionally, the researchers aim

to design a drone with a capability to acquire the location of trapped civilians and all other

vital information inside the burning house or building.

The conclusion of this study will help firefighters to implement rescue operations

safely; therefore, preventing the risk on their lives during rescue operations.

This study only focuses on fire related disasters, and it will revolve in designing a

drone and a rescue reponse robot. The prototypes will therefore go in a simulation to test its

capability and efficiency.

6
Methodology

I. Conceptual framework

By designing a drone with a thermal camera, vital information will be gathered by the

firefighters to develop a rescue plan and to monitor the fire. A programmed drone to aerially

inspect the site is designed. Figure 1 below shows the overview of how thermal imaging

7
works in an actual scenario, while Figure 2 provides an overview of how thermal imaging

works in theory.

II. Area inspection using a drone with a thermal camera

Figure 1: Thermal imaging overview in an actual scenario

III. How

thermal imaging works

8
 Figure 2: Overview on how thermal imaging works

Infrared light emitted by all objects in view is focused by a special lens, and the focused

light is being scanned by an infrared detector. The detector creates a thermogram showing

temperature patterns. It only takes one-thirtieth of a second for the detector to gather

information to make the patterns. This information is obtained from several thousand points

in the field of the detector array.

The thermogram is then converted into electric impulses. These impulses are then sent

into the circuit. The signal processing unit takes place to translate the impulses into an image.

It appears in various colors depending on the intensity of infrared emission. The combination

of all the electric impulses create the image.

The drone is also embedded with a storage card. It contains databases for the location

points of the rescuers and the temperature change on the site. Figure 3 shows the algorithm

inserted in the drone.

9
Figure 3: Algorithm inserted in the drone

10
 IV. Armored robot Design

The Armored robot is proposed to be fireproof and impact resistant. Figure 4 below

shows the designed Armored Robot for dispatching. The robot is also capable of

extinguishing fire. The armored robot is 1.616m in height and 3.512m in width. The robot is

made of chromium which both fire resistant and impact resistant. A scale from 1 to 20 is

provided by the software Cyberbotic to test its resistance against fire and impact.

Figure 4: Armored Robot Design

This robot can handle uneven surfaces. It also has a programmed sensor to

gain awareness of the environment. Figure 5 shows the algorithm of the program.

11
 Figure 5: Algorithm of the Program

V. Simulation
12
 Both the prototypes are applied by reinforcement learning. This means that

the prototypes treat the environment changes as its inputs to perform a specific

action.

Following the reinforcement learning, the Q-learning is also a must. Q-

learning is an algorithm that chooses the best possible action given the input. The

key to get a proper result on the Q-learning is to get the Q(s,a) which is the update

function which can provide the optimal strategy for the given situation.

The mathematical model above states the updated Q-learning equation. The α

serves as the learning step length. The gamma is the discounted factor.

The simulation is perform in a wide room with a ample amount of fire and a

dummy model of civilian. Debris like woods and metals will be thrown from above

to test its impact resistance. Scales on fire and impact resistance will be measured

by Cyberbotic software. To get the values in the Q-learning equation, the robots are

monitored using Cyberbotics Software. The drone is first dispatched to monitor the

area and the temperature changes and the location of the dummy model civilian.

After collecting all the information, it will then return and transfer the information

to the armored robot.

13
Results and Discussion

Figure 6: Drone with a thermal camera image

A drone with a thermal camera image is designed. The monitor shows to the

firefighters the thermal images captured by the drone. The drone then sends

location points and temperature changes to the receiver of the armored robot. Figure

7 shows the final design of the armored robot

14
 Figure 7: Final design of the fire and impact resistant armored robot with a

hose

The armored robot has a built in receiver which receives information from the

drone dispatched to gather information. An algorithm is implemented on the robot

in order to respond to different scenarios during the rescue operation.

ASPECT DRONE

COST The cost of drones these days are no doubt

expensive including a high tech thermal
imaging camera.

EFFICIENCY The drone’s efficiency is very high because

it lessens the risking of lives and also gives
vital information in rescuing.

EFFECTIVENESS The drone perfectly executes its role in

monitoring the area.

SURVEILLANCE Surveillance is of high level as it shows

15
 exact location of trapped civilians.

RISKS The drone runs out of charge.

Table 1: Aspects of the Drone

Table 1 above shows the different aspects of the drone.

 Cost – buying drones nowadays is costly. It ranges up to 20,000 PHP not

including the thermal camera attached to the drone and the memory for holding

its database.

 Efficiency – although the drone is expensive, it reduces risking the lives of

firefighters to gather information.

 Effectiveness – the drone’s effectivity is on point. It gathers all the location

points and the temperature change and transmits information to the armored

robot. It also shows thermal image to the firefighters to get an overview of the

area and the location of the trapped civilians.

 Surveillance – high technology thermal imaging camera is an important factor

of the drone. It allows to see things through smoke which is impossible for the

human eye to see clearly.

16
  Risk – Dispatching the drone on a low battery will decrease its functionality and

therefore cannot give information to firefighters. The risk of losing lives and

ability to put out the fire will increase.

ASPECT ARMORED ROBOT

COST The cost of robots is way more expensive

than the drone.

EFFICIENCY The armored robot will also decrease the

effort of the firefighters to get inside
dangerous areas.

EFFECTIVENESS The armored robot perfectly executes its role

to rescue civilians and putting out the fire.

SURVEILLANCE Robot’s surveillance is based on the

information sent by the drone.

RISKS The robot’s battery life runs out of charge.

Table 2: Aspects of the Armored Robot

Table 2 above shows the aspects of the armored robot.

 Cost – a robot expected to be expensive given the materials needed to build it. It

costs nearly a 100,000 PHP or more depending on the upgrade on its

specifications.

17
  Efficiency – the robot handles falling debris and reduces the risk faced by the

firefighters to perform rescue operation.

 Effectiveness – the robot can successfully point out the location of the trapped

civilians and dangerous areas based on the information given by the drone.

 Surveillance – the surveillance capacity of the robot solely depends on the

information given by the drone.

 Risk – a robot dispatched with a low battery life will not perform its functions

properly.

I. Scale Test Result

Trials Fire Resistance Scale Impact resistance scale

1 19.35 18.671
2 18.367 19.231
3 18.23 19.174
4 19.12 19.086
Average 18.76675 19.0405
Based on the results obtained, the impact resistance average is higher than the fire

resistance average. But both values are close to the highest scale value which is 20.

Therefore, it proves that chromium is a good fire insulator and its strength is capable of

handling debris.

18
 II.
Chart Title
16 II.
14 II.
12
II.
10

8 II.
6
II.
4

2
II.

0 II.
Armored Robot Drone
II.

Q-Function Graph

19
 The graph shows an increasing Q-function for both the prototypes. This trend suggest

that both the prototypes correspond to the best possible action given the sitation of the

environment as its inputs.

Chapter 4
20
 CONCLUSION

The researchers have successfully designed a drone with a thermal camera and an

armored robot that will be used for rescue response during fire incidents. The objectives of

this research have been successfully achieved. With the help of the drone and the armored

robot, firefighters’ success rate in rescue operations will be increased. The thermal camera

imaging helps the firefighters to assess the area and to locate trapped civilians. The drone has

a database which will send the location points of trapped civilians and temperature changes

to the armored robot. The armored robot is then dispatched after the information is received,

and it is programmed to handle debris and to put out fire in the way. Most importantly, it

guides firefighters to the location of trapped civilians. The armored robots fire and impact

resistance yield a value that proves that the chromium material used is a good fire insulator

and an impact resistant material. The Q- function’s increasing trend proves both the

prototypes’ capacity to perform best possible solution depending on the scenario.

21
 Chapter 5

RECOMMENDATION

Future researchers can add a feature that detects the cause of the fire outbreak in order

to ease the investigation. They can also upgrade the specifications of the drone, thermal

camera, and robot by using latest technology available by the time they conduct their

research.

22
REFERENCES :

[1]Y. Choe and M. J. Chung, "System and software architecture for autonomous surveillance robots
in urban environments," 2012 9th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient
Intelligence (URAI), Daejeon, 2012, pp. 535-536, doi: 10.1109/URAI.2012.6463065.

[2]D. D'Auria, F. Persia, F. Bettini, S. Helmer and B. Siciliano, "SARRI: A SmArt Rapiro Robot
Integrating a Framework for Automatic High-Level Surveillance Event Detection," 2018 Second
IEEE International Conference on Robotic Computing (IRC), Laguna Hills, CA, 2018, pp. 238-241,
doi: 10.1109/IRC.2018.00050.

[3]S. Tadokoro, "DDT Project on Rescue Robots and Systems," 2006 SICE-ICASE International
Joint Conference, Busan, 2006, pp. 3429-3434, doi: 10.1109/SICE.2006.315127.

[4]A. Watanabe, H. Miura, M. Okugawa and K. Hatanaka, "Verification of Scenario for Robot-
Assisted Fire-Fighting and Rescue Operations," 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Safety,
Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR), Würzburg, Germany, 2019, pp. 106-107, doi:
10.1109/SSRR.2019.884895

[5]H. Amano, R. Hodoshima and R. Morisono, "Development of heavy-duty mobile unit for
disaster response," Proceedings of SICE Annual Conference 2010, Taipei, 2010, pp. 1307-
1310.

23