A New Approach to Humanitarian Demining. Part 1: Mobile Platform for Operation on Unstructured Terrain

  • Authors:

  • Paulo Debenest;Edwardo F. Fukushima;Yuki Tojo;Shigeo Hirose

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan;Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan;Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan;Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

  • Venue:
  • Autonomous Robots
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Landmines can deprive whole areas of valuable resources, and continue to kill and cause injuries years after the end of armed conflicts. Armored vehicles are used for mine clearance, but with limited reliability. The final inspection of minefields is still performed by human deminers exposed to potentially fatal accidents. The aim of this research is to introduce automation as a way to improve the final level of humanitarian demining. This paper addresses mobility and manipulation, while sensing, communication and visualization shall be discussed in detail in a subsequent paper. After analyzing the merits and limitations of previous works, a new approach to tele-operated demining is considered, using off-road buggies equipped with combustion engines, and taking into account actual field requirements. Control of the automated buggies on rough terrain is also discussed, as well as the development of a new weight-balanced manipulator for landmine clearance operations.