Autonomous Fire Extinguishing System

1
A. Rehman,
1
N. Masood,
1
S. Arif,
1
U. Shahbaz,
1
National University of Sciences & Technology,
Islamabad,Pakistan
engr.anees.ur.rehman@gmail.com, alnafiz@msn.com
saadgc@hotmail.com, umarshahbaz@gmail.com

2
F. Sarwar,
2
K. Maqsood,
2
M. Imran, &
2
M. Pasha
2
Department of Mechatronics Engineering,
Air University, Islamabad, Pakistan
fahad.sarwar@gmail.com, kshii23_bemts@yahoo.com,
imee_786@hotmail.com, mustafa.pasha@mail.au.edu.pk
Abstract Fires are very dangerous and detrimental to life,
property, and the environment. They spread rapidly and
indiscriminately obliterate all things in their path. Fighting fires
entails undeniable danger to life and the majority of suppression
systems used to control them is at a broad-spectrum or macro
scale. We present the design, fabrication, and testing of an
autonomous fire extinguishing system. This system provides a
unique solution to the problem of fires and their destruction by
targeting the initial ignition of the fire and suppressing it before
it starts to increase in intensity and range. The presented system
detects, targets, and extinguishes a fire within a working space by
using heat sensors, a flow control system, servo motors, and a
water extinguishing gun. The system scans its workspace through
motors and uses thermopile arrays to detect heat concentration
gradients in its range. After the detection of the fire, the system
then locks on to the target by extrapolating its location.
Efficiency of the system, suppression accuracy, response time,
power consumption, and work space area are also documented
and presented in this paper. Future considerations and
recommendations are highlighted to advance the systems design,
efficiency, and scope. This is an indigenous solution to fire
fighting in world and it is to make environment a healthier and
safer place for the future.
Keywords- Automation; Flow Control System; Autonomous;
Fire Extinguishing System; Fire Detection; Heat Sensors; Pyro
Electric Thermopile Array; Nozzle Water Suppression; Servo
Motors
I. INTRODUCTION
Fire-fighting [1] has always been a very dangerous
profession. Fire fighters spend most of their careers putting
their life on the line. Current fire-fighting techniques require
that firefighters take high risks. Why not make a system which
takes these risks instead and also the system that can be
implemented in the sensitive areas like ware houses, factory
and working places etc. These are the areas where one needs
protection from fire immediately because life cant be pushed
into risk and as well as money [2].
A simple Fire Extinguisher is designed to control small fire
because if a small fire not checked immediately then it will
soon spread out of control and infect most big fire starts. It is
important, therefore, that you equip your workplace with the
proper fire extinguishers as part of your fire protection plan
[3].
The fire extinguishing system is fully automatic and gives a
unique solution to firefighting techniques [4]. This system
only targets the area which is under fire and will not affect the
surroundings areas. The implementation of this system will
help us to save the important machinery and electronics lying
around in an industrial environment which are not under fire
but can get spoiled due to excessive use of water by fire
department [5].

Now-a-days there are many types of Portable fire
extinguishers and automatic fire suppression systems [6].
These existing systems help to extinguish the fire and perform
good efficient work but it also damage the other expensive
things which are not in the range of fire. These Systems only
waste a considerable amount of suppressant but also do not
target the fires source. This creates unnecessary and
hazardous obstacles in the affected area for evacuation and
relief of human life and well-being. Expensive and sensitive
equipment in such cases are exposed to harmful suppressants
that may impair their functionality or even render them useless
[7]. The project present in this paper provides an efficient and
intelligent solution to human safety as well as the property.
This prototype is implemented in chemical, mechanical, and
these kind of industries to save live and money.
II. METHODOLOGY
The automated system used a thermal sensor to detect a fire
and extinguish it with a blast of water. The sensor detects the
fire at a point and the water pump motor extinguishes the fire.
In this paper same techniques are used to extinguish the fire in
the range of a sensor without any human interference [4]. The
aim of this paper is to provide an efficient and intelligent
solution to human safety. This prototype can be implemented
in chemical and mechanical industries to save live and money.
The project consists of a fire extinguishing nozzle, sensors,
flow control system, motors, and controllers. Fire
extinguishing nozzle is use to hit the desired target. Target
detection will be detected by heat sensors that detect heat
concentration within the range of extinguisher. For hitting the
desired target, we will control the flow of the extinguisher.
The motors are used to control the direction and motion of the
system. After detecting the heat, controller will be able to
allow the motion of a motor and control the flow of water to
desired projectile [8].


III. MODELING & DESIGN

The mechanical structure, Fig.1, is made up of aluminum
which is relatively lighter and having a reasonable strength as
compared to steel, plastic or any other material. The model
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consists of a rod that is attached to the base over which disc
assembly is attached. The disc assembly contains pair of discs
attached by a rod in between them so that both of discs can be
rotated simultaneously. On upper disc a sensor is attached and
on lower disc the fire extinguishing nozzle is attached. Sensor
and fire extinguishing nozzle rotate up and down by two
separate servo motors whereas disc assembly rotates by the
DC motor, attached on the lower disc. Gear is attached on the
shaft of DC motor, which is meshed with the gear attached to
the lower rod which helps to rotate the disc assembly. This
prototype can be attached to portable robot or attached to the
ceiling.

Figure 1: Mechanical Structure

A. DC Motor Control Position
In Position control system, the output position of an
actuator must have a linear response to an operators input
command
d
as shown in figure below .DC motor is used ,
except that a gear train is employed to reduce the speed of
motor
m
as it moves the output inertial load .
The equations of motor torque and motor voltage [9] are given
respectively:
T
m
= KI (1)
E
m
= k
m
(2)

Where T
m
is motor torque and E
m
is motor voltage. The
electronic amplifier or controller has inputs from the set point
or desired position (with the gain of C) and from the
feedback voltage E
f
(which represents the actual position).

The amplifiers equation of motor voltage is:

E
m
= G (c-E
f
) - R
0
I
m
(3)
Where E
m
is motor amplified voltage. The feedback position
sensor could be a rotary potentiometer similar to the volume
control on the CD player. If a constant voltage is supplied
across the potentiometer, then output voltage can be linearly
proportion to the angular position of the output shaft with
sensitivity of h.

This is the equation of feedback voltage which represents
the actual position:
E
f
= h (4)



= R
s

m
(5)

T

=
Tm
Rs

(6)

Where E
f
is the feedback voltage of motor,

is angular
position and T

is angular torque. As the angular speed is a
derivative of angular position

= 0

. Neglecting the inertia of

the gear train, and assuming some linear viscous damping B in
the drive train and the inertia of load with a disturbance torque
T
L
, so the torque balance equation becomes

T

- J

- B0

- T
L
= 0

(7)

By combining the proceeding (1) (7) and solving for we
get the following equation.

0=
[
c
h

d
-_
1
gRh
R
0
R
s
_T
L
_
J
_
gRh
Rs
]
_D
2
+_
(E+
R
2
.
R
0
R
s
2
)
R
0
R
s
_
(8)
B. Angle Calculation of Fire Extinguishing Nozzle
The horizontal distance of target from sensor and fire
extinguishing nozzle is same. So the calculated values by
using trigonometry angle of fire extinguishing nozzle from
base with the error of 1
0
are shown in Fig. 2.

Equation (9) (13) show these calculations. Table I
summarizes the dimensions.
b =
18
tan(
s
)
(9)

b =
12
tan(
m
)
(10)

tan(0
m
) =
12
b
(11)

tan(
s
) =
12+6
b
=
18
b
(12)
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m
= ][
2
3
tan
-1

s
(13)



Figure 2: Angle Calculation
TABLE I. DIMENSIONS OF MECHANICAL STRUCTURE




C. DC & Servo Motors
DC motor is used to create unidirectional rotation and when
sensor detects any flame in its range the motor stops rotating
but rotation should be much fast those sensors do not detect
the flame. PWM is used to control the speed of DC motor.
Initially it must rotate the motor to high acquire initial torque
so that motor starts running and then slows down through
PWM because when motor starts at slower speed, torque is not
enough to rotate the motor. Two servo motors have been used
for rotating sensor and fire extinguishing nozzle. The model of
servos is Hi-Tech Zebra ZS-S1113. This servo can operate
180 when given a pulse signal ranging from 600 sec to 2400
sec
IV. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
For microcontroller programming BASCOM AVR 1.9.11.2
is used. This software is used because it has built-in libraries
which made programming easy and comprehensive, Fig. 3
shows the microcontroller programming.
TPA81 sensor is used to detect the fire in the range of 2m
to 22m which is the wavelength of radiant heat. The TPA81
is a thermopile array which gives temperature at eight
different points at a view angle of 41 x 6 so the view angle
of single point becomes 5.125 x 6 and the temperature that
acquire from sensor is through TWI (two wire interface) or
I
2
C bus.

Figure 3: Microcontroller Programming flow chat

As discussed that for acquiring temperature from TPA81
I
2
C bus is used. In TPA81 temperature is measured and save
in 9 different registers which are as shown in Table II.
TABLE II. TPA81 TEMPERATURE ADDRESSING











Temperature can be acquired by reading these registers;
these registers can only read and are not writeable. The
standard PWM controlled servos are used for the position
control of sensor from which can acquire 180
o
rotation. For
position control of sensor it must write on register number 0 in
sensor using I
2
C bus and values ranges from 0 to 31. This
means 180
o
rotation is divided into 31 step and angle of each
step become 5.806
o
.
As for sensor position control step angle is 5.806
o
so for
each value which is send to sensor have its own angle which
ranges from 0 to 31 for whole 180
o
rotation but it only need
positions from 0
o
to 90
o
so angle according to given position
sent to sensor is shown in Table III.
TABLE III. SENSOR POSITION CONTROL STEP
Value Given to Sensor Position (degrees)
0 0
1 5.80
2 11.61
3 17.41
4 23.22
5 29.03
6 34.83
Part Name Dimension
Lower rod (from base to lower disc) 304.8 mm
Distance between discs 152.4 mm
Diameter of discs 304.8 mm
Diameter of rod 50.8 mm
Thickness of discs 101.6 mm
Gear ratio 1 : 5
Register # Temperature which it saves
1 Ambient temperature
2 Temperature at pixel no. 1
3 Temperature at pixel no. 2
4 Temperature at pixel no. 3
5 Temperature at pixel no. 4
6 Temperature at pixel no. 5
7 Temperature at pixel no. 6
8 Temperature at pixel no. 7
9 Temperature at pixel no. 8
DC motor speed
control

Water pump
flow control

Acquiring
temperature
from sensor
TPA81
Servo motors
position
control
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7 40.64
8 46.45
9 52.25
10 58.06
11 63.87
12 69.67
13 75.48
14 81.29
15 87.09

AVR ATMEGA16L has four PWM channels and for motor
speed control PWM channel number 1 is used. The above
code will generate PWM of 70% duty cycle to give motor
initial torque and then after one second motor will slow down
to almost half of its speed by creating PWM of 52% duty
cycle. The motor rated speed is 170 rpm and as it used gear for
coupling the disc and rod on which disc rotates which have
gear ratio of 1:5. By using gear motor speed reduces to 34
rpm. Initially it generated PWM of 70 % duty cycle which will
reduce speed to 23.8rpm which gives the motor initial torque.
Then after that it created PWM of 52% duty cycle which will
reduce speed to 17.68 rpm. It used car wind screen pump to
through water on the flame.

TABLE IV. SENSOR POSITION VALUE














Whenever flame is detected the DC motor will stop
and servo motor for pump adjusts its position and then
pump will be started to through water on flame. After
the flame is extinguished the system will start searching
for next flame again. The signal which is generated
through micro controller using PWM channels number
2. In code above the 180
o
rotation of servo motor is
divided in to 40 steps according to values from 15 to
55. As 180
o
rotation is divided in to 40 steps which
makes step angle to be 4.5
o
but for this task it need only
positions from 0
o
to 90
o
and value for each step and its
positions is given below in Table IV.
A. Programming Flow Chart








No


Yes







Yes



No
Yes




No




Yes No




Figure 4a: Programming flow chat
Value given to
sensor
Position (degrees)
15 0
16 4.5
17 9
18 13.5
19 18
20 22.5
21 27
22 31.5
23 36
24 40.5
25 45
26 49.5
27 54
28 58.5
29 63
30 67.5
31 72
31 72
32 76.5
33 81
34 85.5
35 90
Start Pump
If Ind of Max
Temp > 4
Increment
Servo
Position
If Ind of Max
Temp < 4
Decrement
Servo
Position
Dc
Motor
on
Start
Sensor
Acquire
Temp
Servo
Motor
on
If Max Temp
> Fire Temp
Track
Flame
Stop DC
Motor
If Ind of Max
Temp = 4
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Figure 4b: Graph for calculation of angles for
servo sensor and pump servo

Complete programming flow chat of the system and
calculation of angles for both sensor and pump servos are
shown in Fig. 4a and Fig. 4b respectively.
The range of sensor is only one meter which is the
limitation of this paper and that range makes hypotenuse with
the base where flame will be present. Maximum positions of
servo that it used are only 13sectors and angle according to
this will is given in Table above which is 75.48
o
and
perpendicular distance of flame from base is 490mm.In the
Fig. 5b red zones is workspace and green area is not in sensor
range. So for 1 m range the distance from rod to flame is as
follows.

J = 100
2
49
2
= 871.7 mm (14)
And at the lowest distance which constrained sensor to detect
the flame is as under:

J1 =
49
tan75
= 131.2 mm (15)

Where:

d = maximum distance at which sensor can detect flame

d1 = minimum distance at which sensor can detect flame

The graphical and schematic representation of the workspace
and range is shown in Fig. 5a and Fig. 5b.




Figure 5a: Workspace Schematic


Figure 5b: Workspace Representation
V. CONCLUSION
The technique used in this paper is at micro level, which
means it will affect only the area under the influence of the
fire and will not spoil any surrounding areas or equipment.
This system can be very beneficial and efficient in industries
where sensitive machinery and electronics are critical for
implementation and operation. After detecting the heat the
total response time of sensor to sense the location of fire is 3
seconds and the total response time to extinguish the fire is 5
seconds. Once the target is locked it throws water until fire
completely extinguished.

These enhancements can be made to the fire extinguishing
system in future like range is one of the limitations in this
work. The range of sensor is not more than 1 meter so sensor
should be selected which have enough range for the industrial
use. The number of points at which sensor gives temperature
is only 8, so it can never target the middle point and can never
gets 100% accuracy. As the servo is rotated at selected angles
so by smooth controlling of servo it can get 100% accuracy in
target. The Pressure of the water pump can also be controlled
with respect to the distance of the target. The projectile of the
water jet can also considered in creating a better equipped
extinguishing procedure. These all steps decrease the response
time of system in detecting and extinguishing flame.
REFERENCES
[1] Maurice Jones, Fire Protection Systems , Edition 1 Cengage
Learning, 08-Aug-2008
[2] Robert W. Klinof , Introduction to Fire Protection, April 12, 2006
[3] James C. Robertson, Introduction to Fire Prevention, Prentice hall,
01-Jan-2000
[4] Tao Chen, Hongyong Yuan*, Guofeng Su, Weicheng Fan Fire Safety
Journal 39 (2004) 297307
[5] Dennis P. Nolan, Fighting Pumping Systems at Industrial Facilities,
Edition 1
st
and 2
nd
.
[6] E. Cote, Operation Of Fire Protection Systems, National
Fire Protection Association, 2003.
[7] Jones & Bartlett, Fire Officer: Principles and Practice, Second
Edition, 15-sep-2009.
[8] W. Bolton, Mechatronics: Electronic Control Systems in Mechanical
and Electrical Engineering, Addison Wesley, New York, NY, 1999.
[9] V.U.Bakshi, U.A.Bakshi, Electrical Circuits And Machines,
Technical Publications, 01-Jan-2007.
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