The object of the fire detection is to navigate the robots through a maze of walls and look into the rooms and see if there is a fire. Using a UV sensor, a flame the size of a single candle can be seen 5 meters away. The Trekker utilizes a Hamamatsu UV sensor that is mounted onto the Trekker sweeping sensor brackets. The Trekker scans the area and finds an open flame.The Hamamatsu UV TRON Flame Detector is lightweight, has low current consumption, and operates as high sensitivity UV Sensor. The UV TRON is an ultraviolet detector that makes use of the photoelectric effect of metal combined with the gas multiplication effect. It has a narrow spectral sensitivity of 185 to 260 nm. Thus it is solar blind, being completely insensitive to visible light. Unlike semiconductor detectors, it does not require optical Visible-cut filters, thus making it easy to use.

The driver for the UV TRON is operated by applying DC low voltage and outputs a high-voltage power supply. It also contains a signal processing circuit on the same printed circuit board. Since background discharges of the UV TRON caused by natural excitation lights (such as a cosmic ray, scattered sunlight, etc.) can be cancelled in the signal processing circuit, the output signals from the C3704 series can be used without errors.UV TRON Flame detector is small, but has a wide angular sensitivity (directivity) and can reliably and quickly detect weak ultraviolet radiation emitted from a flame due to use of the metal plate cathode (e.g. it can detect the flame of a cigarette lighter at a distance of more than 5 m.). The Flame detector is well suited for use in flame detectors and fire alarms, and also in detection of invisible discharge phenomena such as corona discharge of high-voltage transmission lines. To minimize the area the sensor sees the flame, a field of view mask can be used. The shields are useful when you are trying to locate the location of the flame. (more…)