What happens when it is too dangerous to send someone to the rescue?
D425 was a project started by the Overachievers to try and create a droid that could support the activites of first responders on the scene. On the job, first responding crews place themeselves in dangerous situations in order to carry out their jobs. However, situations may present themeselves in which sending in people to the scene may be far too risky, or even physically impossible.
This goal led us to create D425, a small droid that can be remote controlled to explore accident scenes or disaster zones. The droid is equipped with contionous tracks that allow for high mobility, infrared sensors, and a camera for video streaming. By using a virtual reality helmet and a joystick, a user can control D425 and explore the environment around them as a way to reach people in ways that first responders may not be able to. In its current stage, the user is not able to control the droid but rather recreate these actions in a virtual reality environment. In the future we will be connecting both systems.
Beyond the scope of the virtual reality headset, we are looking into integrating augmented reality components to the project in order to create a system in which certain elements that the droid will frequently encounter can be augmented for the user to better survey the environment around them.
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