Development of Air Conditioner Robot Prototype That Follows Humans in Outdoor Applications

Abstract

According to Robert McSweeney, in light of a new study: “Conditions in the GCC could become so hot and humid in the coming years that staying outside for more than six hours will become difficult”. He is a climate analyst at CARBON BRIEF, a nonprofit temperature and climate analysis group. He also states that changes there can help give us an idea of what the rest of the world can expect if we do not reduce the emissions that pollute homes and factories. Because of the high temperatures in GCC countries, the effect of heat stress is very high there, which discourages shoppers and pedestrians from shopping in the open area due to the physical exertion and high risks faced by people and workers. Heat stress peaks in most Arab Gulf countries from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. during the summer season. Heat stress is increasingly an obstacle to economic efficiency in these countries. This work designs and develops a robot that tracks shoppers and provides a cool stream of air directly around them during shopping in open areas to reduce the effect of heat stress. The robot enables us to cool the temperature around customers in the market to increase comfort. In this project, a robot was designed and manufactured to track a specific person and cool the air around him through a cool stream of air generated by the air conditioner installed inside the robot. We used a Raspberry Pi camera sensor to detect the target person and interact with a single-board computer (Raspberry Pi 3) to accomplish this design and the prototype. Raspberry Pi controls the air-conditioning robot to follow the movement of the target person. We used image processing to discover the target shopper, the control system, and then guide the bot. In the meantime, the robot must also bypass any potential obstacles that could prevent its movement and cause a collision. We made a highly efficient design that can synchronize between the software algorithm and the mechanical platform of the robot. This work is merely the combination of a cool stream of air and a robot that follows a human.