A scanning robotic system for humanitarian de-mining activities

Abstract

[Purpose]Humanitarian de-mining tasks require the use of specific detecting sets to detect landmines. These sets are normally based on a one-point sensor, which must be moved over the infested terrain by a combination of a scanning manipulator and a mobile platform. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of the sensor head and the scanning manipulator.

[Design/methodology/approach]The manipulator needs sensors in order to negotiate ground irregularities and detect obstacles in the path of the mine-detecting set. All of the sensors must be integrated into a sensor head that is in charge of both detecting land mines and providing overall sensor functions for the mobile platform's steering controller.

[Findings]The sensor head is based on a commercial mine-detecting set and a ground-tracking set based on a network of range sensors tailor-made for this purpose; the scanning manipulator is based on a mechanism with five degrees of freedom.

[Originality/value]The design assessment and some experiments are reported. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.