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The Problem:
Choking smoke and intense heat are hard enough for
firefighters to endure, let alone carrying heavy loads. Add stairs, and
these brave individuals are even more burdened. They need a more efficient
system to carry out their life saving tasks.
Each year, roughly 44 firefighters in
the United States die on the job from stress or overexertion. These
conditions rank as the leading cause of firefighter job-related deaths and
generally result in over 40% of these deaths for any given year (Firefighter
Fatalities in the United States in 2002,
FEMA).
Manually transporting equipment upstairs
also reduces the firefighter’s efficiency. Greenville firefighter Randall
Willis says that stairways are generally smoke-filled, requiring use of
self-contained breathing apparatus on the way up and down. This limits
firefighting and rescue time. Chief McDowell of the Greenville Firefighting
Department states that even a three-story building poses problems. Rescuing
victims from the upper-floors is an even more arduous task than carrying
gear. According to Willis, victims over 200 lbs. are common.
Competitive Technologies:
Manually transporting firefighting gear upstairs is the standard. Stair
climbing IBOT wheel chairs are available for about $25,000 but need a human
operator in the chair. These would be useless for carrying equipment.
Motorized hand trucks are available for moving appliances but also require a
human operator. Firefighter Willis knows of no standardized piece of
equipment which can do the job.
The Invention/Proposed Solution:
The motorized stair climber, or FireBot, would be small enough to navigate
through tight turns but large enough to carry moderately heavy loads up
stairs and rescue victims down stairs. A FireBot could be manually operated
by a firefighter or remotely operated from outside a building. This person
would send equipment such as air tanks up stairs to firefighters. Typically,
the FireBot would operate only in stairways. Air tanks would be retrieved in
the stairwell. According to both Firefighter Willis and Chief McDonagh of
Detroit, a FireBot operating in this mode would significantly reduce
firefighter stress.
The FireBot would have tilt and
wall-following sensors to assist the remote operator and compensate for
limited vision. The robot would count landings so that the remote operator
would know which floor it had reached. These sensors could form the basis
for eventual autonomous operation.
Three stair-climbing mechanisms were
identified in brainstorming and research sessions: walkers, tank track, and
tri-wheeled. Walkers were rejected as too complex. Tank tracks tend to shear
tread cleats if used for heavy loads. They also “flop” on stair landings.
The team selected a tri-wheeled drive because it doesn’t have the tank
track’s problems. Trials with student-constructed Lego models indicate it is
an excellent stair climber. An exhaustive patent search turned up only
out-of-date patents.
Remote control would be maintained
through a wireless computer network using off-the-shelf hardware. Future
work could explore the use of the tiny MOTE systems currently under
development at Intel and Berkley University and available from Crossbow inc.
These are sometimes referred to as “smart dust” and could be scattered
around a fire scene to form an effective but inexpensive self-configured
network. |
