SLAM for Firefighting Robots: A Review of Potential Solutions to Environmental Issues

As robotics continues to develop at an unprecedented rate, there is an increasing need to deploy robots to help humans in many fields, including firefighting areas. Firefighting robots are extremely useful in rescue work for various purposes, such as firefighting, transportation, exhaust, surveying, etc. Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology may be used to provide an accurate map of the fire scene by firefighting robots. However, fire scenes are often filled with smoke and lack adequate lighting sources. Aiming to address some of the unfavorable conditions of fire scenes, this article reviews some solutions to similar problems in other fields and analyzes their characteristics from some previous publications on the SLAM technology for firefighting robots.