A New Approach to Humanitarian Demining

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.

[1]  S. Suganuma,et al.  Development of detachable tele-operation Gripper for the walking robot , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[2]  Roger D. Quinn,et al.  Locomotion controller for a crab-like robot , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.98CH36146).

[3]  J. P. Trevelyan.  A suspended device for humanitarian demining , 1996 .

[4]  J.-D. Nicoud,et al.  Robots for Anti-Personnel Mine Search , 1995 .

[5]  Shigeo Hirose,et al.  Development of quadruped walking robot with the mission of mine detection and removal-proposal of shape-feedback master-slave arm , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.98CH36146).

[6]  Martin A. Riedmiller,et al.  Using reinforcement learning for engine control , 1999 .

[7]  John W. Brooks.  Applications of GPR Technology to Humanitarian Demining Operations in Cambodia : Some Lessons Learned , 1998 .

[8]  Zvi Shiller,et al.  Some Steps Towards Autonomous Cars , 2001 .

[9]  Lino Marques,et al.  Mobile pneumatic robot for demining , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).

[10]  Nobuhiro Shimoi,et al.  Development of teleoperated six-legged walking robot for mine detection and mapping of mine field , 2000, Proceedings. 2000 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2000) (Cat. No.00CH37113).

[11]  Shigeo Hirose,et al.  Development of tethered autonomous mobile robot systems for field works , 2001, Adv. Robotics.

[12]  Peter J. Burt,et al.  Techniques for Autonomous, Off-Road Navigation , 1998, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[13]  Shigeo Hirose,et al.  Robotic system for humanitarian demining , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[14]  A. L. Morgan.  Landmines: Clearing the Way , 2003 .

[15]  J. M. Hervé.  Design of Spring Mechanisms for Balancing the Weight of Robots , 1987 .

[16]  Kensuke Takita,et al.  1A1-A1 TITech Wire : ロボット制御用高速シリアルI/Oの開発(81. スーパーメカノシステム I) , 2001 .

[17]  Anna G. Stefanopoulou,et al.  Effects of control structure on performance for an automotive powertrain with a continuously variable transmission , 2002, IEEE Trans. Control. Syst. Technol..

[18]  Anand M. Sharan,et al.  The optimal balancing of the robotic manipulators , 1986, Proceedings. 1986 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[19]  Katsuhiko Ogata,et al.  Discrete-time control systems , 1987 .