Adding Smoke, Gas,
and Heat Detection
to Your Robot
by Gordon McComb
Everyone complains that a
robot is good for nothin’ — that
is, other than providing its
master with a way to tinker
with gadgets in the name
of “science!”
However, here’s a useful
application you can give your
robot in short order: fire,
smoke, and heat detection.
As this article shows, you can
easily attach sensors to your
robot to detect smoke,
poisonous gasses, and high
temperatures, making your
robot a kind of mobile safety
inspector.
Let’s take a look at three
hands-on projects designed for
quick and easy interfacing to
any robot built on the Arduino
development platform.
Smoke Detection
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Statistics show that
the majority of fire deaths each year are caused not by
burns, but by smoke inhalation. For less than $15, you can
add smoke detection to your robot’s long list of capabilities,
and with a little bit of programming have it wander
through the house checking each room for trouble. You’ll
probably want to keep it in the most “fire-prone” rooms,
such as the basement, kitchen, laundry room, and robot
lab.
