Help for my Design Project

[ronnel]

hi! i'm ronnel and i have been reading this forum for 5 months now for my last college year in computer engineering. Im planning to do a robot that has a certain task to do. but the problem is what should i do next.

here is the plan for my robot:

Option 1. A robot that will be used when a building collapse. the robot will dig its way to find a human body whether its alive or not... the point is it can locate a person's specific location. (i'm planning to use a thermal sensor)
 
or

Option 2. the said robot will send a sonar that will show to the monitor what is the status of the collapse building

[WaterPig Master]

Hi ronnel;

For option 1:  you'll need high torque motors to dig through rubble, and how is the robot going to detect if the human is alive or not?  For the heat sensor:  you could use a thermistor, but they can be unreliable.  I'd try a PIR (passive Infra Red).  I've never used them myself, but from what I've read, they respond to the IR radiation emitted by humans and other animals.  They're used in burglar alarms.

Hope that's of help,
WaterPig Master

[szhang]

even PIR won't go through rubble.  You'll need some highly sensitive thermal imaging stuff.

Sonar doesn't like to go through solid objects either.  There are some seismic sonars that work for underground mapping, maybe they'll work through rubbles.

Also, I'd assume the rubble from a collapsed building will be concrete/brick.  Digging through them would be difficult.  Most rescue robots try to craw into the tiny spaces in the rubble instead.

[MaltiK]

This looks like an extremely difficult/expensive project, definitely beyond the budget of a college student, unless you are Warren Buffet's son. If not, you can use a Thermal Infared Camera

http://www.maxmax.com/thermalcamerasdifferences.htm

which does not penetrate solid objects. And you will need extremely high torque motors, something like this:

http://www.drillspot.com/products/434825/Dayton_1TMV6_Extra-High_Torque_Farm_Duty_Motor

both of which are 1,000+ USD, beyond my budget atleast. And the sonar to monitor thing is kind of etchy, what you might want to do is use a laser rangefinder to scan the debris, and a Wi-Fi module that sends to a remote laptop, which relays the information to a monitor?

[paulstreats]

irobots packbot was used to search for survivors in the ruins of the world trade center. Maybe you can look at the design of it for some ideas

[WaterPig Master]

Hi there

For option 2 - waht do you mean by status?  That might be easier than finding bodies in rubble, depending on what 'status' means.

Thanks,
WaterPig Master