Modeling of a multi-robot energy saving system to increase operating time of a firefighting robot

In this paper, we present the modeling of a multirobot energy saving system (MRESS) to increase operating time of a firefighting robot. MRESS is intended to enable a firefighting robot with sub-robots and a fire hose to effectively reach desired destinations while saving battery. To increase operating time by improving the traction efficiency of the firefighting robot, we designed a sub-robot and added it to the firefighting robot. The main goal of the sub-robot is drawing a fire hose in order to save energy consumption of the firefighting robot. For the efficient cooperation, MRESS operates robots with a fire hose by combining a vision-based fire hose tracking method, an endrunning navigation and a limit-cycle navigation applied to the edge of obstacles. The fusion of a limit-cycle navigation and a fire hose tracking method has remarkable advantages such as smooth path planning and fast computational data processing. Further, the endrunning navigation method can decrease the chance of a collision that would possibly twist the fire hoses. As a result, MRESS enables the robots and a fire hose to effectively navigate a smooth planned path with fast processing and to successfully reach the desired destination without twisting the fire hose and wasting energy.