RubbleRecon

Saving civilians in war zones, one fleet of robots at a time.

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Inspiration 💡

We live in an era of uncertainty and change. From political violence in Africa to natural disasters in the States, and from the recent earthquake in Turkey to the raging Russo-Ukrainian War, the lives of many civilians are in danger. One issue that stuck out to us particularly was trapped victims in collapsed buildings. Whether caused by nature's hand or a human missile, the people inside need to get out.

How do they get out? There exist two main solutions: sending human responders in and sending robots in. However, many rescue robots built are inordinately expensive and worth their weight in gold, creating issues when they need to be transported to disaster zones, and being difficult to mass produce. And of course, sending humans in is incredibly dangerous, and can trigger further breakdown of the wreckage.

Sometimes, a human touch is needed. Sometimes, a complex robot is required to save lives. But we believe that there is a problem here that can be solved. There is a need for a fleet of cheap, mass-producible, centrally-controlled rescue robots.

Enter RubbleRecon. 🔥🔍🤖

An integrated hardware and software solution for performing reconnaissance and rescue operations on collapsed buildings.

Here's how it works. By using minimal and cheap parts, combined with a dedicated mass-production assembly line, a vast fleet of rescue robots can be built (We've constructed just one for demonstration purposes of this idea! 😉). Next, line them up near the debris and connect them to the central controlling hub website. Finally, activate the bots on the hub website and watch them zoom into the wreckage, navigating over and around obstacles, all while streaming back location and audio-visual information to you, the controller. If a bot gets destroyed by falling debris, no problem! There's many more still left.

Hopefully, a survivor will eventually be found, and using the bot's location and audio-visual capabilities, you can ascertain what is happening and where to send help. And that's that! Mission accomplished, with minimal cost and maximum coverage.

Part 1: The Hardware 🛠

For the hardware, we constructed a proof-of-concept Arduino robot with a Bluetooth receiver, designed for travelling over rubble and rough terrain.

The bot features:

  1. An aluminium frame for durability 🚀
  2. Front wheels on simulated spring suspension in order to traverse a variety of terrain 🗻
  3. An ultrasonic rangefinder to detect the distance to obstacles 👀
  4. A sound sensor that can detect calls for help, and which could be replaced with a microphone in a later version 👂
  5. A buzzer for alerting nearby victims that help is nearby 🚨
  6. A Bluetooth module that allows for 2-way serial communication with a computer 💙
  7. Power provided by 2 6-volt DC motors ⚡

See images of the bot below and a demo of it working in the video!

Part 2: The Software 💻

Deployed here: click me! Code here: click me!

By connecting with nearby RubbleRecon bots using the Arduino Bluetooth receiver, a human, safe away from the wreckage, can monitor and direct the rescue bots' actions.

Currently, the dashboard unlocks the capability to:

  1. Connect and disconnect from bots 🔌
  2. See the bot's current location and path taken 🗺
  3. Listen to and see the bot's microphone / sound sensor data 🎤
  4. View the bot's camera 📷
  5. Stop and start the bot 🛑
  6. Focus in on a single bot, or zoom out to see all the bots at once 👁

Not all of these features were implemented in our prototype, but we believe that it works well as a proof of concept. We built the frontend using React via NextJS, along with TailwindCSS and questionable amounts of HTML Canvas manipulation.

Challenges we ran into 💢

  1. Due to time constraints, we were unable to implement features like full microphone and camera usage. The camera feature is mostly a proof of concept, not actually connected to the robot, and the microphone has been temporarily substituted for a sound sensor.
  2. The dashboard's performance drops a bit when creating many connections.
  3. Dealing with Bluetooth serial communication synchronously.
  4. Unfortunately, we couldn't work out the connection between the front and back ends in time. However, we do still believe that the design and direction of our idea are sound, and are proud of what we accomplished for each part in isolation.

Accomplishments that we're proud of 😎

  1. The visualization of the sound. It looks so cool and clean!
  2. The ability to view multiple bots' output at once.
  3. Designing the robot.

What we learned 🧠

Eric: This was my first time using NextJS and TailwindCSS! Gautham: This was my first time using the Arduino and a Bluetooth module for wireless communication!

What's next for RubbleRecon 💭

No promises, but we're definitely thinking about the kind of impact this could have on the world. If it could scale up to the real world, tangible lives could be saved. This, we believe, is the greatest possible impact of all.

Disclaimer: Edits made after the deadline were just adding a cover image & grammatical fixes!

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