Acoustic fire extinguishing module for an unmanned vehicle

According to a 2020 census including 48 countries and 3.3 billion people worldwide, fire departments completed approximately 70 million missions. Of them, 4 million reports were fires, resulting in over 20,700 fatalities and over 70,000 injuries. For every 100 fires, there were 0.5 fatalities and 1.8 injuries. Conventional firefighting methods come with inherent limitations in terms of reach and personnel safety. They can be time-consuming, and may exhibit limited effectiveness against specific fire types. The prototype developed implements a novel approach of using sound waves of precise frequency to extinguish the fire. The idea is to cut out oxygen and lower the temperature by using high-speed, low-pressure sound waves. These waves are produced by the sub-woofer, driven by the amplifier, and act as a blanket wrapping the fire, hence cutting out the oxygen supply. Further, the fire extinguishing system is mounted on an unmanned vehicle in order to reduce the human risk factor involved in the process. A mobile app controls the movement of the unmanned vehicle. The module was able to extinguish the fire in a pan of diameter 15 cm within a range of 1 m at an optimal frequency range between 50–60Hz and an average response time of 5s.