Thursday, September 18, 2025

IPN students develop robot to rescue disaster victims

A group of students from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) has developed a rescue robot capable of detecting the presence of earthquake survivors trapped under rubble.

Called Heiland, which means savior in German, the robot was designed to aid human and canine rescue workers when carrying out rescue missions in the aftermath of quakes or other natural disasters.

The robot prototype consists of two fiberglass boxes joined at the center in a form similar to the body of an ant, four wheels, an FPV (first-person view) camera that sends images in real time and a passive infrared sensor, which can detect body heat from the bodies of people or animals even if they are not visible to the camera.

It also uses a Hall effect sensor and a magnetic pick-up sensor to help it navigate amid rubble and regain its balance in the case of sustaining a fall and flipping over.

The sensors are programmed by an Arduino Mega micro-controller board and the robot is manipulated by a joystick remote control, with which forward, reverse and turn commands can be made within a radius of 100 meters.

The remote control has a built-in LCD screen to which the camera images are transmitted.

Heiland is the brainchild of Itzeli Camacho Vargas, Abril Suárez López, Gerardo Huerta Pérez, Eduardo Salmerón Sánchez and José Sánchez Ramírez, all of whom are studying for IPN’s Technical Studies in Digital Systems degree.

They said they also plan to develop an interface that will enable information such as the number of people the robot detects to be sent back to the person controlling the device.

Other possible future improvements include adding a sensor to the robot that can detect gas leaks and the development of a mobile application that will allow Heiland to be operated via a cellphone or tablet.

“What we are planning is for the robot to be able to support rescue groups and reduce the risk of losing human and canine lives in the search for people trapped by the collapse of homes or buildings because of a natural disaster, like the earthquake that occurred on September 19 last year,” the students said.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
A semi trailer appraoches customs at a land border crossing

Less smuggling, more import tax collection: The goals of Mexico’s biggest customs reform in decades

0
Placing customs under military control failed to eliminate the agency's notorious corruption problem. Can a high-tech overhaul make the difference?

Fed rate cut sends peso to strongest level vs. dollar in more than a year

2
Wednesday's closing rate of 18.32 pesos per dollar represented a 0.2% gain from Monday's session, capping the peso's eighth consecutive day of strengthening against the greenback.
sacks of drugs

US names Mexico among 23 principal drug-producing countries while praising its anti-cartel crackdown

13
Mexico's inclusion was hardly a surprise, but it was noteworthy that the Trump administration praised the Sheinbaum administration for its increasing cooperation.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity