A NEW ROBOTIC UNIT FOR ONBOARD AIRPLANES BOMB DISPOSAL

Abstract The paper presents an overview of commercial Ex-plosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) robots and a new system, specially conceived and designed for airplane security tasks. The guidelines for the design of this new EOD robot and the expected innovative performances and characteristics have been established in collabora-tion with the bomb squads of the airports of Genoa and Malpensa 2000, in Italy. A robotic system composed by a mobile platform equipped with a serial redundant dexterous arm and a suitable sensorial system is proposed. The paper shows the mechatronic mock up of the robotic unit, its design, main characteristics and the first results achieved in the virtual environment reconstructing the airplane work-space. Introduction The problem of security is becoming more and more important; bomb squads, always more, recover and have to handle and manage object of doubtful origin. Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) can be trig-gered in a variety of ways, including electronic trans-mitters and switches, tilt switches, thermal switches, and motion detectors (on internet, a mercury switch can be bought for only 8 €). IEDs usually contain a wide range of common explosive or incendiary materials in-cluding black powder, gasoline, TNT; a certain part is realized with more “professional” explosives as C4 or Semtex. The variety of initiation methods, explosives, and fabrication techniques creates a threat environ-ment, which is daunting. While there is great diversity amongst the threats, historical data do reveal similari-ties. To determine the operating requirements of a bomb disposal robot, it is necessary first to understand the nature of the threat. This includes knowing the