Design And Development of An Artificial Neural Network-Based Fire Detection System

Fire outbreaks are often catastrophic, destroying lives and property. It is essential to develop an accurate and reliable fire detection system to safeguard lives and protect assets. Traditional fire detection approaches, such as using common sensors, are inaccurate and usually trigger false alarms. To address this issue and significantly improve the precision, accuracy, response time, and dependability of fire detection systems, we designed and developed an Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-based system. Our ANN-based fire detection system integrates six (6) sensors, including temperature, humidity, smoke, gas, flame, and light sensors, with an ESP32s microcontroller into a sensing node to maximize the properties of each sensor and reduce false alarms. Four sensing nodes were developed to capture environmental dimensions during data acquisition. A Central data Station (mainly comprising Raspberry Pi 3 B+ microcomputer, real-time clock, display screen, buzzer, and indicators) was also developed to serve as the processing device and the central hub for decision making. The ground truth was established using a manual switch attached to the Central data station (i.e., 'ON' or a '1' for fire scenarios and 'OFF' or a '0' for no fire situations), and data were collected on a Google sheet. The collected data was processed and used to train ANN models of different architectures and hyperparameters on the Central Data Station. The best model was selected using the F1-score evaluation metric. The trained model was deployed to make predictions in real-time. Compared to many conventional systems, the system demonstrated exceptional accuracy of 95% with a false alert rate of less than 3%. Additionally, the system's relative response time is good; on average, fires were detected within 10 seconds of their start. By providing enhanced security and ensuring a prompt response in the event of a fire, this state-of-the-art fire detection system offers a competitive alternative to traditional methods.