Basic Behavior of Rope-Assisted Robot for Early Detection of High-Rise Fires

The recent surge in fire accidents in densely populated high-rise districts, exacerbated by the stack effect, underscores the critical need for a disaster response platform capable of overcoming the limitations of conventional aerial ladder trucks and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). While UAVs are vulnerable to strong building winds and are constrained by short operational durations owing to battery limitations, cable-driven parallel robots face restrictions regarding their rapid deployment at emergency sites owing to complex installation requirements. To address these challenges, in this study, the fundamental mobility performance of a rope-assisted robot platform integrating a negative pressure adhesion mechanism and a dual-winch system, designed for early fire reconnaissance and securing smoke ventilation paths, was evaluated. The proposed platform ensures stable, long-duration wall climbing using a wired power supply and features a lightweight 3.5 kg carbon fiber reinforced polymer body. Furthermore, it incorporates an expandable structure capable of accommodating multipurpose modules, such as a glass breaker and a rear propeller, enabling it to perform such missions as window shattering. The dual-winch system distributes the payload of the robot to prevent falls, while a precise localization algorithm based on ultrawideband (UWB) technology is applied to mitigate the GPS shadow effect in urban canyons. Field experiments conducted on a 6 m rough concrete vertical wall confirmed that winch-assisted driving achieved a 47.4% reduction in power consumption compared with pure suction driving, demonstrating the energy efficiency of the system. Furthermore, the system achieved a precise path-following error of less than 10 cm based on UWB localization, confirming its position control performance for targeting windows and conducting reconnaissance missions.