Student designs robotic camera for hazardous situations

Hazardous conditions such as collapsed buildings or handling live bombs are usually situations that need to be essentially tackled but which possess grave risk to the humans involved with it. It is usually at such times that the need of an intelligent but inanimate object is felt and what better than a robot that is built exclusively to handle such critical situations. Recently, Mohammed Yusvin Mustard, a student of the Electrical Engineering University of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) designed a robotic camera that could, when coupled to a microcontroller and the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Wireless technology, be used in such critical and hazardous situations.

Robotic camera

Shaped like a tank, the robot was equipped with a camera and crash sensors on its left, right, front and rear sides. Designed in the form of switches, these sensors were capable of lighting up whenever the robot hit any hurdle on whichever side, thus indicating a change in direction, and which in turn could be effected by using the robot’s remote. While this action could be monitored on a computer screen via the monitoring camera placed within the robot, the optimal distance for this was only 11 meters.

However for conditions that did not necessitate computer viewing, the robot could be controlled up to distances of almost 27 meters. Well, there is no doubt that this technology can play a very important role in detecting survivors if any, after building crashes. Not just this, it can also be used to assess remotely the safety of the building and thereby aid in decision-making as to whether the building was safe for people to enter into. Other than usage in building collapses, the robotic camera had potential for usage in detecting the presence if any of a live bomb in terrorist infested areas as well.

No doubt, Yusvin Mustard should be complimented for his this invention, but considering the limited areas of usage, it is imperative to note that the robotic camera if further developed and fine tuned especially for increasing its radius of operation it can play a very crucial role in situations that involve spillage of hazardous chemicals or for even defense related purposes. Good luck Yusvin!

Via Kompas