Rosniff, the smoke controller

Rosniff is a 3-wheeled robot capable of detecting fires and alerting the security manager via SMS.

It is a robot designed for use in premises at risk of fires such as warehouses or school laboratories. Once started, the robot moves randomly within the intended area. It can dodge any obstacle it finds on its path thanks to 4 proximity sensors placed on the front. In case of fire detection, thanks to a smoke sensor placed inside it (for convenience issues, simulated with a photo resistance), the robot stops and sends an alarm message.

How was this project born?

The "Rosniff" project was born in October 2016, in 4th electronics year, when in addition to the simple fun of building something, the desire to build something useful and sensible was added.

One afternoon, reading on the internet about a refinery that had burned at Sannazzaro de 'Burgondi in Lombardy and the methods of preventing fires, the idea of the fire detecting robot came up.

Version 1.0

A very rough version of the robot's first prototype was quickly created in order to compete at the Balluf robotic contest selection in Milan. All the components were mounted on a wood plate.

It basically moved dodging obstacles.

Version 2.0

Passed the Balluf selection, the second version came up. More proximity sensor were added in order to improve its visibility. The smoke sensor was added and its own custom PCB made in the school laboratory.

Prizes and competitions

The first gratification was at the Automation Fair in Parma where at the Balluf competition's nation final I placed 5th.
On 27th May 2017 I took part in the competition, I found myself facing 36 extremely valid projects, where I qualified 1st in Italy with the "Utilities" award.

Version 3.0

In order to complete my high school thesis I improved the functionalies of the robot, adding a LCD and a GSM module to communicate with it, and receive allarms for detected fires.

Functioning Demonstration

See what it is able to do in action!