Several ground-based robots have been developed to support dangerous fire extinguishing activities; however, in such cases, it is difficult to access the fire sources directly. The concept of a hose-type robot called 'dragon firefighter' (DFF) is proposed herein; it emits high-pressure water from a fire hose and floats it for direct transmission to the fire point. A stable levitation with 2 m length was realized; however, for practical use, we must extend the floating length of the robot. This study was aimed at extending the floating length of a hose-like body. Two primary issues need to be addressed for achieving this aim: lack of a sufficient reaction force for flying and torsion along the longitudinal direction of the body. Therefore, our robot was first extended using a middle nozzle. A flow channel model was constructed, and an injection hole was designed to achieve a cross-sectional area that could generate a sufficient reaction force. An adjustable jet direction nozzle was designed with four degrees of freedom to control the net force and torsion torque. Finally, a simple proportional-derivative control was incorporated to adjust the twist angle, float the DFF (3.6 m length), surmount a wall, and subsequently, extinguish the fire.

Flexible continuum robots exhibit a strong potential for approaching narrow and intricate spaces. However, such long flexible bodies often experience oscillations, making them unstable. To enhance their performance in order to realize rapid and precise movements, unnecessary vibrations should be suppressed. The authors have proposed a new type of continuum robot, aimed for firefighting; this robot, Dragon Firefighter (DFF), can fly using water jets. The DFF suffers from the same problem of body oscillation. In particular, a more challenging issue for the DFF is the use of limited number of actuators owing to the constraints of weight and water flow. Discrete locations of the actuators on the long body of a robot can generate uncontrollable resonant modes. This letter proposes a mechanical approach to suppress the oscillation passively without actuation control. The proposed mechanism is composed of wires threaded along the body and connected to rotary dampers to restrict the deformation of the body. First, a numerical model to simulate the oscillation and damping behavior was reported. A basic experiment with a 1-m-long flexible tube shows that the damping mechanism suppresses the vibration appropriately, which also corresponds well with the simulation. Second, a stability analysis of the simulation of the flying motion shows that the passive damping mechanism can improve the stability, with the convergence time becoming approximately 2.4 times shorter than that in the case without the mechanism. Finally, we apply the damping mechanism to a 3.6-m-long flying robot. The demonstration shows that the robot can float stably and that the damping mechanism works correctly.

We herein propose the method for developing an “aerial hose type robot” called the “Dragon Firefighter (DFF)” that can fly along with the water jet. We focus on realizing a novel concept through which obstacles can be avoided and fire spots can be accessed from a distance, thereby enabling direct firefighting, and evaluating fire suppression ability from a close distance of fire source for practical useage. Using robotics, we aim to extinguish the fire from a distance, simultaneously guaranteeing firefighters' safety. We were able to realize stable floating of a hose of length 2.8 m (total length of 3.6 m), which is twice that of a conventional one, overcoming the height gap of approximately 1.5 m and the size of frontage 1.0×2.5 m. We demonstrated a fire extinguishing, however the ability of fire extinguishing about DFF was unknown. Hence, we conducted a mist spray experiment from a close distance to validate the cooling effect of water. Considering the aerial nature of our robot, we concluded that a mist spray from its nozzle module will be more effective for extinguishing fires. Finally, we presented the consideration of firefighting tactics using the proposed DFF for practical implementation.

In our study, we developed AED Gripping System for AED transport UAV in order to deliver quickly to remote places. This system is structured by grippers and a gripping determination system. We introduced Permanent Electromagnets as gripper. The gripping determination system is necessary to confirm that the AED is delivered at the destination, because AED transport UAV flies to remote places which the pilot cannot see the UAV. We developed a new gripping determination system which use the difference of convergence time of counter-electromotive force between gripping or not. We conducted flight experiments and confirmed that the AED Gripping System do not drop the AED accidentally and can confirm gripping status during flight.

災害対応，特に火災現場での消火活動や救助活動は，作業に従事する消防士にとってリスクが大きい．特に大規模な火災では消防士が消火活動を行うことは困難であり建物の外から放水して延焼を防いでいるのが現状である．消火を目的とするロボットは数多く提案されているものの，重量やサイズの問題，平地を走行する大型の消火マシンが主であるため直接火元にアクセスすることは困難である．そこで，我々は火元に直接アクセスできる消防ホースの能動化手法を提案し，ホースの反り返りやねじれ等に対する索状体を安定浮上させるための制御手法，十分な噴射反力を発揮できるノズルモジュールの開発，振動を抑制する制振機構の開発を行い，ホース長3ｍでの安定浮上と先端位置の左右旋回動作を実現した．しかし，実用化のためには更なる長尺化を行わなければならない．そこで，ノズル数がn個の場合で流路モデルを一般化し，ノズル数が最大20個, ホース間距離が1.0m, 最大長20mの場合でのノズル１個あたりの噴射反力とその時の噴射孔の断面積を求め検証を行ったので報告する．

The authors proposed a novel hose type robot, which can fly directly into the fire source via a water-jet and demonstrated that a robot with a length of approximately 1.8 m can fly the air by leveraging the water jet.That named Dragon Fire Fiter (DFF). However, DFF had some problems. Most important problem is that The lack of control input of the robot could not suppress several modes of body oscillation. In this study, the authors propose the passive mechanism using the wire to solve that problem．The authors also model the mechanism to evaluate the proposed mechanism.

Disaster response, especially fire-fighting and rescue, is highly risky for firefighters engaged in action. As a result, many robots intended for fire-fighting have been proposed. We proposed a novel hose type robot, which can fly directly into the fire source via a water-jet and demonstrated that a robot with a length of approximately 2 m can fly the air by leveraging the water jet. However, the robot had some problems. The lack of control input of the robot could not suppress several modes of body oscillation , the body of the robot collided with the ground as the body lengthens and slacks , the drift errors of installed IMU sensors prevented the robot from flying stably over 5 minutes. In this study, we propose the mechanism using the wire to solve those three problems.

Disaster response, especially fire-fighting and rescue, is highly risky for firefighters engaged in action. As a result, many robots intended for fire-fighting have been proposed. However, it is difficult for them to directly access fire sources because their mobility is limited. Specifically, existing robots are large and heavy. Therefore, we proposed a novel hose type robot, which can fly directly into the fire source via a water-jet. In this study, we report that 3 m length body can fly stably in the air and its head direction also be controlled.