Distance Controlled Rescue and Security

Mobile Robot
Golap Kanti Dey, Raqibul Hossen, Md.Shafayet Noor, Kazi Tanvir Ahmmed
Department of Applied Physics, Electronics and Communication Engineering,
University of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh
d.k.golap@gmail.com, raqib_saikat@yahoo.com, noorshafayet@yahoo.com, tanvir@cu.ac.bd

AbstractThe intention of designing a robot is to facilitate the

human beings through giving security and working as a helping
hand through reprieving. The technology used in this rescue and
security robot has a number of important features such as
robotic car control by cell phone, automatically avoiding
obstacles in its way. It can sense gas, smoke and provide an alert
through text messaging. The robot can detect bombs, pick and
place objects and also do distance measurements. A high quality
wireless video camera equipped with a stepper motor for the
omni-directional view is used for the spying purpose which is
mounted on the robo car to send real video images and audio
signals. These audio and video stream received by the receiver
unit can be used to take proper steps according to the received
signals. This robot can also be used to reach places where
humans cannot reach like hidden places, small tunnels. The
ultimate focus of this system is to offer far possible security for
the human being. In this paper, we have illustrated our work by
using the entire sub modules.
Keywords-Objects pick and place module; Robotic car; Sensors;
Wireless Camera.

I. INTRODUCTION
Robot is an electromechanical, reprogrammable,
multifunctional device which is capable of acting in the highly
varied environment, and takes autonomous actions. The word
Robot was first used in a 1921 play titled R.U.R. Rossums
Universal Robots, by Czechoslovakian writer Karel Capek.
Now a day's every system is automated in order to face new
challenges. In the present days automated systems have less
manual operations, flexibility, reliability and accuracy. Due to
this demand every field prefers automated control systems.
Especially in the field of electronics automated systems are
giving good performance.
In the present scenario of war like situations, unmanned
systems plays very important role to minimize human losses.
So this kind of robot is very useful to do operations like
detecting leakage of gases, obstacle, and object pick up and
place at the time of emergency as well as security purpose [1]
providing human-robot interaction in rescue robotics.
Wireless robotics is one of the evolving fields of
application, where different technology is used. It is an
application where the concept of embedded processor to
wireless communication is being used for a practical
application. Guangming Song [2] developed surveillance robot
with hopping capabilities which was adopted with the Zigbee

technology for wireless communication. Guangmings

powerful home security robot could leap over particles more
than 4 times its own size. Reference [3] worked on the Dual
functional reconfigurable mobile robot. They focused on
designing flexible mobile robot & various issues related to
interfacing various modules with CPLD (Complex
Programmable Logic Devices). I. B Celik [4] worked on
development of a robotic arm controller by using hand gesture
recognition. Sourangu Banerji [5] developed an unmanned
vehicle using a GSM network with microcontroller. Reference
[6] gave us an idea about real time human tracking using
sensor for home security robot. They combined the data for
both vision and depth sensor. The combat robot [7] which was
radio operated had all the controls like normal car. Through a
wireless camera this combat robot gave all the information
about the enemy. These types of applications are very much
useful for the industries and places where the access of human
being is difficult, specifically, if the path of the robot is quite
complicated and not suitable for laying cables. The only
solution exists is Wireless communication between the robot
and the base station.
In our work we are controlling a robot through wireless
communication system, which is known as DTMF system.
Microcontroller is used to control all operations. According to
the motor operations the robot will operate in specified
directions. If any obstacle is observed by the robot it will
change its direction or it will stop. Our system is equipped
with smoke sensor, gas sensor, object pick up and place
module for the security purpose of the human being. The
main aim of using these sensors is to monitor the smoke
through smoke sensor, leakage of gas using gas sensor in any
industry or home. If input voltages of these sensors exceed the
threshold level, an alert is given through a text message. Here
we also used an Object pick and place module for the
surveillance system.
II. FRAMEWORK OF THE SYSTEM
The heart of our rescue and security robot is a
Microcontroller, which is configured by programming in the
Micro C Pro, an advanced C compiler for the PIC
Microcontroller Unit. Various sensory unit inputs, DTMF
decoder input are given to the microcontroller unit. After
applying the power supply [8], microcontroller takes action
through pre-defined instructions. Using the entire sensory unit
like gas sensor, ultrasonic sensor for the obstacle detection,

978-1-4799-0400-6/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

smoke sensor and giving an alert through SMS interfacing

module we have offered a total package of security in the robo
car. Metal detector unit is also used for strengthen the security.
Total configuration of the rescue and security is given in
Figure 1.
Now a days in modern world the best technology for
communication system, known as the wireless communication

[9] is used here through DTMF sub module and wireless video
transmission unit. Wireless video camera is used for spying
purpose to reach place where it is difficult by a human being.
Objects pick and place module is used as the helping hand for
the rescue purpose, controlled through a mobile phone from
remote place.

Video camera unit

Object pick up and place unit
Wireless video
transmission unit
Stepper
motor

Gas sensor unit

Mobile phone
Obstacle detection and distance
measurement unit

Wireless video
signal receiver

MICROCONTROLLER

DTMF decoder
unit

Smoke sensor unit

SMS interfacing
unit

Display unit

Power supply unit

H-bridge module
& speed control

Metal detector
Figure 1. Block diagram of the rescue and security mobile Robot

III. CONSTITUENT SUB MODULES

A. Object Pick and Place Module
Objects pick and place sub module is one of the major
parts of this rescue robot. For the up and down of the robotic
arm a servo motor with 18 degree step resolution is used. For
griping the object we used another servo motor. Maximum
opening of the grip is 6 cm and minimum is 0.5 cm. A 6V DC
servo motor is used for this purpose. Servo motors operate
differently from DC brush motors, which rotate when voltage
is applied to their terminals.

Figure 2. Servo motor driving circuit for object pick-up and

pick off

According to the generated DTMF frequencies by pressing

the keypad on the mobile phone we can control the motors
behavior. When key 7 is pressed, the servo motor rotate to
upward position, when 9 is pressed the servo motor rotate to
downward position, key 1 is used for griping the object and
key 3 is used to release the object.

Start

DTMF signal

Micro-controller
Figure 4. Implemented DTMF circuit with power supply unit

Rotate
servo
motor
upward

Object
pick-up
and
place

Object
pick
up
Rotate
servo
motor
downward
Rotate grip
motor inward

Rotate
servo
motor
upwar
d

Rotate
servo
motor
downward

H-bridge IC L298 is designed to control two gear DC

motors which take command as input from the DTMF decoder
through a Microcontroller. There are 2 Input and 2 output pins
for each motor. Two gear dc motor are connected to the HBridge output pin. In order to activate the motor 1, the Enable
A line must be HIGH.

Object
pickoff

Rotate grip
motor outward

Figure 3. Flow chart for object pick-up and place

B. Robotic Car Movement

The main platform of our rescue and security robot is the
robotic car, which is controlled by a mobile using DTMF
circuitry. First of all a mobile phone kept on the desirable car,
receives call from the calling subscriber. If the DTMF decoder
is activated, the H-Bridge module begins functioning.
According to the generated DTMF frequencies from the
subscriber cell phone we can control the robot movement.

Figure 5. Robot movement controlling circuit using L298 H-bridge

IC

The motor as well as its direction can be controlled by

applying a LOW or HIGH signal [3] to the Input1 and Input2
lines, as shown in Table I.
TABLE I. Motor behavior for different input
Input 1

Input 2

Motor Behavior

LOW

LOW

Break and stop

HIGH

LOW

Turns forward

LOW

HIGH

Turns backward

HIGH

HIGH

Break and stop

When key 2 is pressed in the mobile phone, the

corresponding signal is detected by the decoder IC and both
gear dc motors rotate in the forward direction i.e. the robot
moves forward. When key 4 is pressed the left gear dc
motor moves forward while the right motor remains idle, i.e.
the robotic car moves to the leftward direction. When 6 is
pressed the right gear dc motor, moves forward while the left
motor remains idle i.e. the robot car moves to the rightward
direction.
When key 8 is pressed both the motors move to the
backward direction. When key 5 is pressed both of the
motors are turned off which means that the robot car is now in
the breaking position and stop.

Figure 6. Object pick and place module on the robotic car

C. Metal Detector Unit

Metal detector [10] works on the principle of transmitting
a magnetic field and analyzing a return signal from the target
and environment. For the purpose of detecting metal , an
oscillator producing an alternating current that passes through
a coil. Here we used the CS209A proximity sensor IC, which
is the main component of our metal detection cicuit.
While power supply is on metal detector start its query
for metallic object. If it can detect any metallic object it sends
a signal to the microcontroller which is connected with a sms
interfacing unit. Due to this signal from the metal detector
unit, microcontroller sends a sms to a pre-defined cellphone
number. Meanwhile microcontroller keeps sms interfacing
unit inactive until the metal detectors output stage changes.
While that output goes low again metal detector starts
detecting.If no metal is detected is keep its query unless its
power shuts down.

Figure 7. Metal detecting circuit

D. Gas Sensor
Gas sensor module is used for detecting the leakage of
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). When gas sensor senses gas
that is, when the sensor exceeds a level called threshold level
the output of the sensor is activated and it alerts through the
message by the sms interfacing unit to the subscriber. After
sensing the gas the sensor is kept inactive for 10 minutes.

Figure 9. Smoke sensing circuit

F. Ultrasonic Sensor
The ultrasonic sensor used here for the obstacle
detection and through proper programming and interfacing
module we had measured the distance of the obstacle. The
measurement distance of this module is within 0.03-3m. It
transforms the data into impulse with different width. The
advantage [11] of ultrasonic sensors is long-range detection,
the drawback of that is the unstable system and slow reaction
rate. The circuit connection for this unit is simple. Just have to
fed the output (pin 2) of the sensor to a pin of microcontroller
and connect the other two pins with the power rail
respectively.
Figure 8. Flow chart of the gas sensor

E. Smoke Sensor
Apart from the gas sensor we have also used a smoke
sensor. So here we are monitoring the gas and smoke also.
When smoke sensor senses smoke, that is, when the sensors
smoke sensing branch voltage exceeds the reference level
called threshold level the output of the sensor is activated and
the microcontroller receives the sensor output. This sensory
element is very much compatiable with microcontroller and
having good sensitivity and rapid response time. LPG gas may
be harmful for the human being, so through the above process
we can use it for security purpose of the mankind. Smoke
sensing circuit actually warns anyone against fire accidents.
Alert is given to the subscriber through the message by the
sms interfacing unit. After sensing the smoke the sensor is
kept inactive for 5 minutes. After that it again starts sensing
the smoke. We can use it for both home and industrial security
purpose.

G. Wireless Video Transmission Unit

Wireless video camera mounted on the robotic car is used
for the surveillance and spying purpose. We can make a large
number of areas automated by controlling the direction of the
camera by generating the DTMF frequencies. For this total
action just install the wireless camera on the robotic car and
set the wireless receiver to a TV or monitor to watch the
action and take the necessary steps through recorded video
footage.
A TV capture card is a computer component that allows
television signals to be received by a computer. It is a kind of
television tuner. Most TV tuners also function as video
capture cards, allowing them to record television programs
onto a hard disk. The card contains a tuner and an analog-todigital converter along with demodulation and interface logic.

IV. CONCLUSION
The distance controlled rescue and security mobile robot
is successfully designed and assembled. It is based on
microcontroller which is the brain of the complete system.
DTMF decoder decodes the received tone and gives binary
equivalent of it to the microcontroller. The controller is
programmed such that appropriate output is given to motor IC
L298 which will drive two DC motor connected with it. As
rescue and security features are the most important factors of
this mobile robot - object pick and place module, gas sensor,
metal detector, smoke sensor, distance measurement unit plays
vital role to integrate these two aspects. In our work we have
deptict the modern application of cell phone. In the era of the
industrial revolution, people tends to bulid big industries and
high rise apartments to make profits. But many of them are
very much unconscious about the secutiry of industry and high
rise building as well as the human being who are working or
living their. After the disaster like earthquakes many people
are embracing death due to the procrastination of the
deliverance. Considering
all the situations, the robot
integrated with different sub modules can be used for
redemption and security purpose.
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