Humanitarian Demining: Reality and the Challenge of Technology - The State of the Arts, Page 151-172
Maki K. Habib
Abstract: In the context of humanitarian demining it is essential to have a reliable and accurate sensor or an integration of heterogeneous/homogeneous sensors with efficient and reliable data fusion and processing techniques. In addition, it is necessary to overcome the constrain on the resources to speed up the demining process in terms of time, cost, and safety enhancement of personnel and operation. A portable handheld mine detection approach to sensor movement is slow and hazardous for individual deminers. Armored vehicles may not thoroughly protect the occupants and may be of only limited usefulness in off-road operations. Robotized solutions with effective sensing capabilities properly sized with suitable modularized mechanized structure and well adapted to local conditions of minefields can greatly improve the safety of personnel as well as work efficiency and flexibility. Such intelligent and flexible machines can speed the clearance and perform verifying processes when used in combination with handheld mine detection tools. Furthermore, the use of many robots working and coordinating their movement will improve the productivity of the overall mine detection process through the use of team cooperation and coordination. This paper evaluates the available mine clearance technologies and disscusses their development efforts and limitations to automate tasks related to demining process.In addition, it introduces technical features and design capabilities of a mobile platform needed to accelerate the demining process and achieve safety with cost effective measures.
Keywords: humanitarian demining, mine detection, demining robots, mechanical demining, service robots.
Multisensor Data Fusion for Spaceborne and Airborne Reduction of Mine Suspected Areas, Page 173-186
Isabelle Bloch, Nada Milisavljevic and Marc Acheroy
Abstract: The problem of mined area reduction is addressed in this paper. Pieces of information collected using airborne multispectral scanners and airborne full polarimetric SAR, together with context information, all integrated in a geographical information system, are classified and combined in order to find indicators of mine presence and mine absence and provide image analysts with adequate tools to interpret mined scenes during the area reduction process. The paper contains a broad description of the whole problem and of the developed method and focuses on classification and data fusion tools based on the belief function framework and fuzzy sets theory.
Keywords: humanitarian demining, multisensor data fusion, remote sensing.
A Biologically Based Chemo-Sensing UAV for Humanitarian Demining, Page 187-198
Sergi Bermudez i Badia, Ulysses Bernardet, Alexis Guanella, Pawel Pyk and Paul F.M.J. Verschure
Abstract: Antipersonnel mines, weapons of cheap manufacture but lethal effect, have a high impact on the population even decades after the conflicts have finished. Here we investigate the use of a chemo-sensing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (cUAV) for demining tasks. We developed a blimp based UAV that is equipped with a broadly tuned metal-thin oxide chemo-sensor. A number of chemical mapping strategies were investigated including two biologically based localization strategies derived from the moth chemical search that can optimize the efficiency of the detection and localization of explosives and therefore be used in the demining process. Additionally, we developed a control layer that allows for both fully autonomous and manual controlled flight, as well as for the scheduling of a fleet of cUAVs. Our results confirm the feasibility of this technology for demining in real-world scenarios and give further support to a biologically based approach where the understanding of biological systems is used to solve difficult engineering problems.
Keywords: UAV, demining, autonomous control, localization, biologically based, chemosensing.
GPR Signal Processing with Geography Adaptive Scanning using Vector Radar for Antipersonal Landmine Detection, Page 199-206
Toshio Fukuda, Yasuhisa Hasegawa,Yasuhiro Kawai, Shinsuke Sato, Zakarya Zyada and Takayuki Matsuno
Abstract: Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a promising sensor for landmine detection, however there are two major problems to overcome. One is the rough ground surface. The other problem is the distance between the antennas of GPR. It remains irremovable clutters on a sub-surface image output from GPR by first problem. Geography adaptive scanning is useful to image objects beneath rough ground surface. Second problem makes larger the nonlinearity of the relationship between the time for propagation and the depth of a buried object, imaging the small objects such as an antipersonnel landmine closer to the antennas. In this paper, we modify Kirchhoff migration so as to account for not only the variation of position of the sensor head, but also the antennas alignment of the vector radar. The validity of this method is discussed through application to the signals acquired in experiments.
Keywords: information processing and signal analysis, landmine detection, GPR, migration.
Sustainable Robots for Humanitarian Demining, Page 207-218
Pedro F. Santana, Jose Barata and Luis Correia
Abstract: This paper proposes a roadmap for the application of advanced technology (in particular robotics) for the humanitarian demining domain. Based on this roadmap, a portable demining kit to handle urgent situations in remote locations is described. A low-cost four-wheel steering robot with a biologically inspired locomotion control is the base of the kit. On going research on a method for all-terrain piloting, under the morphological computation paradigm is also introduced, along with the behavioural architecture underlying it, the Survival Kit. A multi-agent architecture, the DSAAR architecture, is also proposed as a way of promoting short time-to-market and soft integration of different robots in a given mission. A common denominator for all developments is the quest for sustainability with respect to (re-)engineering and maintainability effort, as well as economical and ecological impact. Failing to cope with these requirements greatly reduces the applicability of a given technology to the humanitarian demining domain. Finally it is concluded that biologically inspired design fits considerably well to support a sustainable demining paradigm.
Keywords: humanitarian demining, mobile robots, biologically inspired robots, morphological computation, multi-agent systems.
Integrated robotic systems for Humanitarian Demining, Page 219-228
E. Colon, G. De Cubber, H. Ping, J-C Habumuremyi, H. Sahli and Y. Baudoin
Abstract: This paper summarises the main results of 10 years of research and development in Humanitarian Demining. The Hudem project focuses on mine detection systems and aims at provided different solutions to support the mine detection operations. Robots using different kind of locomotion systems have been designed and tested on dummy minefields. In order to control these robots, software interfaces, control algorithms, visual positioning and terrain following systems have also been developed. Typical data acquisition results obtained during trial campaigns with robots and data acquisition systems are reported. Lessons learned during the project and future work conclude this paper.
Keywords: legged robot, distributed control, neuro-fuzzy control, visual servoing, colour constancy.
Development of Mine Detection Robot System, Page 229-236
Hajime Aoyama, Kazuyoshi Ishikawa, Junya Seki, Mitsuo Okamura, Saori Ishimura and Yuichi Satsumi
Abstract: The Mine Detection Robot supports the mine removal work in countries where mines are buried, such as Afghanistan. The development started from September, 2003. Considering running on rough terrains, the robot has four crawlers, and hydraulic motors in front and rear were serially connected by piping so that they could rotate synchronously. Two work arms were mounted on the robot, one was a horizontal multi-joint SCARA type with motorized 2-link arm, while the other was a vertical multi-joint manipulator with 6 degrees of freedom. Also, domestic evaluation tests were carried out from February to March, 2005, followed by overseas validation tests in Croatia from February to March, 2006. These tests were conducted with a mine detecting senor mounted on the Robot, and the detection performance was evaluated by its mine detection rate.
Keywords: mine detection, sensor arm, manipulator.
Controlled Metal Detector Mounted on Mine Detection Robot, Page 237-245
Seiji Masunaga and Kenzo Nonami
Abstract: Landmine detection capability of metal detectors is very sensitive to the gap between buried landmines and the sensor heads. Therefore, human deminers manually scan ground surface with the metal detectors in such a manner that the sensor heads follow the ground surface. In case of robots assisted landmine detection, this function can be performed accurately and safely by controlling the gap and attitude of the sensor heads. In this investigation, the effectiveness of the gap and attitude control of the sensor head by some mechanical manipulator on the landmine detection performance has been addressed quantitatively. To this end, the paper describes the development of a Controlled Metal Detector (CMD) for controlling the gap and attitude of the sensor head. The CMD generates trajectories of the sensor head from the depth information of the ground surface acquired with 3-D stereovision camera in order to avoid any obstacles and possible impact with the ground, and then tracks the trajectories with a trajectory-tracking controller. The effectiveness and the impact related to the gap and attitude control on the landmine detection performance of the CMD have been demonstrated by experimental studies.
Keywords: mine detection robot, gap and attitude control, 3-D stereo vision, trajectory planning, metal detector.
Research on Semi-automatic Bomb Fetching for an EOD Robot, Page 247-252
Zeng Jian-Jun, Yang Ru-Qing, Zhang Wei-Jun, Weng Xin-Hua and Qian Jun
Abstract: An EOD robot system, SUPER-PLUS, which has a novel semi-automatic bomb fetching function is presented in this paper. With limited support of human, SUPER-PLUS scans the cluttered environment with a wrist-mounted laser distance sensor and plans the manipulator a collision free path to fetch the bomb. The model construction of manipulator, bomb and environment, C-space map, path planning and the operation procedure are introduced in detail. The semi-automatic bomb fetching function has greatly improved the operation performance of EOD robot.
Keywords: EOD robot, world modeling, obstacle avoidance, path planning.
Power Tillers for Demining: Blast Test, Page 253-257
Emanuela Elisa Cepolina and Manjula Udayanga Hemapala
Abstract: Power tillers are very simple and versatile machines with large scale diffusion in developing countries, where they are commonly used both for agriculture and for transportation purposes. A new integrated participatory approach that makes use of and improves local end-users knowledge has been used to design a new robotic system for humanitarian demining applications in Sri Lanka, using power tiller as core module. A demining machine composed by a tractor unit, a ground processing tool and a vegetation cutting tool is here presented together with results obtained from the first blast test on the preliminary version of tractor unit armouring. Different breakable connections between wheels and axle have been designed to cause physical detachment and interrupt the transmission of the shock wave released by the explosion of a mine under one wheel. Effects of explosions on different types of wheels and on the chassis have been recorded and commented.
Keywords: integrated participatory design, modularity, simpleffectiveness, semi-autonomous robot, blast test.
Guest Editorial
Robotics and Sensing for Humanitarian Demining
Maki K. Habib
For further informations in German please click here!