RECON (Responsive Earthquake Conditions Operations Navigator) 🕷️🤖

A Six-Legged Spider Bot for Disaster Search & Rescue

Project Overview

In disaster situations like earthquakes, time is critical when it comes to saving lives. Traditional wheeled robots often fail to navigate debris-filled environments. To solve this, I present RECON, a six-legged spider robot (hexapod) designed to assist in search and rescue operations with precision and adaptability.

This project was completed as part of my Final Year Engineering curriculum and serves as a practical demonstration of how robotics, AI, and IoT can work together to aid humanity in times of crisis.

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Key Features

Autonomous Hexapod Locomotion

• Powered by 12 MG996R servo motors
• Controlled via Arduino Mega 2560
• Implements a Hexapod Gait Algorithm for stable movement over rough and unstable terrain

Thermal Human Detection

• Uses MLX90614 IR temperature sensor to detect living beings based on thermal signature
• Can detect survivors even in dark, dusty, or smoke-filled environments

Real-Time Image Processing via YOLOv5

• Onboard ESP32-CAM streams video over WiFi
• A Flask-based server receives the stream and runs YOLOv5 object detection to confirm if the thermal signature is a human
• Ensures minimal false positives

GPS Location Transmission

• NEO-6M GPS module fetches current location coordinates
• ESP8266 WiFi module sends detected survivor's location to a web dashboard/server or mobile device via IoT protocols

Smartphone Controller App

• Developed using MIT App Inventor
• Allows remote control of the robot’s movement, live video feed, and emergency stop
• Real-time display of GPS coordinates and detection status

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Communication Protocols

• Serial Communication: Used for data exchange between Arduino Mega, ESP32-CAM, and ESP8266
• HTTP Protocol: Used between Flask server and YOLOv5 for video processing results
• TCP/IP over WiFi: Enables ESP32-CAM and ESP8266 to communicate with the server and app via network sockets
• UART Protocol: Facilitates inter-microcontroller communication (e.g., ESP8266 ↔ Arduino Mega)

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Technologies Used

Technology	Purpose
Arduino Mega	Central servo and leg control
ESP32-CAM	Video stream & image processing
ESP8266	IoT communication (WiFi-based)
MLX90614	Thermal human presence detection
NEO-6M GPS	Geolocation tracking
Flask + YOLOv5	Object detection server
MIT App Inventor	Mobile app for remote control
Servo motors	Hexapod mobility

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YOLOv5 Model Integration

• Flask server hosted on a laptop or cloud VM
• Accepts live video stream from ESP32-CAM
• Detects "person" label via YOLOv5
• Returns either:
  • "face_detected" (with GPS)
  • "no_face"

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Real-Time GPS Sharing

When a human is detected, the robot:

• Captures current GPS coordinates using the NEO-6M GPS module
• Sends location and detection info via ESP8266
• Shares data over WiFi using HTTP/MQTT to server or mobile app
• Marks survivor's location for the rescue team

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Impact

RECON showcases how robotics + deep learning + IoT can significantly improve rescue operations by quickly identifying and geolocating trapped survivors—without risking human lives. This is a strong example of engineering for social good.

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Robot Images

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Folder Structure (Recommended for GitHub)

RECON_Robot_Project/
├── .gitmodules/
├── .git/
├── yolov5/
├── ESP32_CAM/
│ └── esp32_cam_yolo.ino
├── ESP8266-IR-Sensor/
│ └── esp8266_ir_temp.ino
├── Flask-YOLO-server/
│ ├── server.py
├── Arduino-Mega-Motion/
│ └── mega_leg_controller.ino
├── Media/
│ ├── Image_1.jpeg
│ └── Image_2.jpeg
├── README.md

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Cloning with Submodules

To clone this repository and initialize all required submodules (e.g., YOLOv5):

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/VartikaChauhan/RECON_Robot_Project.git
// Already cloned without submodules? Use:
git submodule update --init --recursive