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 pote...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Autonomous robots 2005-05, Vol.18 (3), p.303-321
Main Authors: Debenest, Paulo, Fukushima, Edwardo F, Tojo, Yuki, Hirose, Shigeo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidents
Armed forces
Armored vehicles
Automatic control
Fuel consumption
Human performance
Inspection
Land mines
Rough terrain
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0929-5593
1573-7527
DOI:10.1007/s10514-005-6842-9