Stereo-Vision-Based Fire Detection and Suppression Robot for Buildings

A stereo-vision-based fire detection and suppression robot with an intelligent processing algorithm for use in large spaces is proposed in this chapter. The successive processing steps of our real-time algorithm use the motion segmentation algorithm to register the possible position of a fire flame in a video; the real-time algorithm then analyzes the spectral, spatial, and motion orientation characteristics of the fire flame regions from the image sequences of the video. The characterization of a fire flame was carried out by using a heuristic method to determine the potential fire flame candidate region. The fire-fighting robot uses stereo vision generated by means of two calibrated cameras to acquire images of the fire flame and applies the continuously adaptive mean shift (CAMSHIFT) vision-tracking algorithm to provide feedback on the real-time position of the fire flame with a high frame rate. Experimental results showed that the stereo-vision-based mobile robot was able to successfully complete a fire-extinguishing task.