How to Make Smartphone Controlled Fire Fighting Robot Car

Hello, readers in this instructable I will show you how i made this smartphone controller fire fighter robot car.

The cool thing about this project is you can connect this robot to any mobile device and control it.

To begin with, let me go through some basic info about this project.

What is a Firefighter Robot?

You can simply call it a machine version of firefighters! As we all know what does a firefighter do.

They rush to the areas where the fire incidents have happened and help to get rid of it as soon as possible.

Well, you cannot expect so much from this small machine but if it is built on a larger scale definitely it can.

How it is Controlled by a Smartphone?

We are using the Wi-Fi communication method from the Nodemcu board.

The onboard wifi helps in establishing a communication medium as the control panel to move the robot is being set by a web server that can load on any mobile device.

This is a prototype of the fire-fighting robot car which comes with a lot of advantages.

Advantages of a fire fighting robot car compared to human firefighter

The main advantage is safety, humans take risks to reach the areas but in the case of this robot there is no such risk, you will be controlling the robot with a remote device.

The other thing is this robot can work in a hazardous environment that is a threat to humans, as we breathe air. This problem is solved when this robot car is used.

Although there are many advantages to every creation there is always a positive and negative side.

So coming to disadvantages you can say that the power backup, it drains up the batteries so fast that for a longer period of time, it needs battery replacement.

With this being said let us begin with supplies for building this project.

• Nodemcu also called as ESP8266
• H-Bridge with L298N motor driver
• Empty Cardboard box
• Submersible water pump
• 18650 batteries x 2
• Battery holder
• Switch
• Jumper wires
• BO motor and wheels
• Empty plastic bottle to fill with water
• Hot glue
• Ruler and pencil

This is the base and also the main part of this robot, The version of cardboard that I'm using is very strong, and got it from an old mobile phone.

We will use this as a base to hold the BO motor, Start by adding the wheels to the BO motor or few call it as DC gear motor.

Now mark the center point in the cardboard that you are using, Make markings for the BO motor and make a hole.

After which you can insert the BO motor, make sure the wires are inserted first as it is difficult to solder later if something is not right later.

After inserting the motor secure it by adding drops of hot glue, wait for some time, and add one more layer of hot glue since we need extra strength as this part carries the load.

The circuit comprises of BO motor, L298N motor driver and submersible pump, I will go through each circuit one by one.

ENA (Enable A) and ENB (Enable B), These pins (GPIO4/D2 and GPIO15/D8) are used to control the speed of the motors on each side of the robot.

IN_1 (Right Motor Forward), IN_2 (Right Motor Backward), IN_3, Left Motor Backward, IN_4 Left Motor Forward.

These pins, GPIO0/D3, GPIO2/D4, GPIO12/D6, and GPIO13/D7 control the direction of rotation for the motors.

Submersible Pump: This pin D0 is connected to a submersible pump.

I will be using lithium ion or also known as 18650 batteries to power this project, the gnd of battery and esp8266 will be conneted to L298N motor driver.

5v pin of motor driver to vcc pin of nodemcu, 12v pin of l298n to positive side of the battery, and to power on and off the circuit i will be adding a switch.

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This is the Arduino code for our robot car.

You have to make a note of few changes here, instead of my Wi-Fi name and Password you can enter yours.

After this you can select the port number and most importantly the board type.

Go-to -> Board and select ESP8266, now click on upload and wait for the uploading.

After this is done, you can disconnect the programming cable and proceed with the next steps.

After you have the code on Nodemcu we can finally test the project and thus is my most favorite part.

Connect the power supply using battery and switch on the supply, You can see the Nodemcu light blink meaning it is ready to connect.

Open Wi-Fi your phone and connect to your robot Wi-Fi, you might need to enter the password.

Open internet browser on your phone and enter 192.168.4.1 on the address bar, When you click on search

Control panel will open up, press on the control button and test if the robot moves, front, back and sideways, and if everything goes fine we can start to check the submersible motor.

Why not make it more resistant to open fire by adding some aluminum foil.

Yeah i know what you are thinking, you are thinking this guy must be crazy!

No, I'm not the cardboard when exposed to long times in fire disfigures in some cases, to protect from this case i added a aluminum foil layer that serves as a shield to the heat to some extent.

I added hot glue to the body later pasted strips of aluminum foil, i used same step on all the other 4 sides.

This part supplies water and we will be assembling this in this step.

To make the water go far i will use a nozzle recycled from old pen tip, I glued the nozzle to the tube and double insulated to avoid any leakages.

The other end of the tube/hose will be connected to the submersible pump.

I glued the plastic bottle to the robot base, and to avoid any shaking during the working i added pieces of cardboard on all 3 sides of the cardboard and glued it that resembles the support case.

Now the submersible pump is inserted onto a plastic bottle to which later water will be filled.

To add extra layer of protection from heat i covered the plastic bottle with aluminum foil.

All you have to do is switch on the power supply button of the robot car

Open Wi-Fi on your phone or laptop

Note: This project do not need an internet connection

After you open the Wi-Fi, you can connect to the robot as per the name given by you, Enter the password and click on connect

Now open browser on your phone and visit 192.168.4.1 and click search , An control panel will pop up and you can see all the control button for this robot

Fill the bottle with waters and begin with your mission!

This was all about building this project, you can watch the video for its working.

This is the complete tuotorial video along with working of this project. you can watch this video if you have any queries related to connections if still you have questions comment box is always there for us to connect, Thank you for showing interest on my project.