Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Most of landmine detection robots proposed so far have been strongly restricted from locomotion inside the minefield because they cannot cross over the mine. So we have proposed a mine detection robot with hybrid locomotion, which can enter minefield with low ground surface contact, which can cross over the mine instead of changing its path and scan landmines directly using EMI (Electro Magnetic Induction) sensor. The hybrid locomotion proposed in the robot uses the frame walking technique and the conventional wheeled locomotion. The robot switches over the locomotion mechanism from wheeled to leg when mine is detected and vice versa with a lead screw mechanism. The leg locomotion is achieved by frame walking technique where the two frames translate with the help of lead screw mechanism. Very purpose of adopting this combination is to evade anti-personnel landmines which are relatively smaller in comparison to their anti-tank landmine counterparts. With frame walking the robot passes over the mine instead of going around the mine. The robot initially starts in wheeled mode and upon detection of metal, pulls in the frame walking algorithm. The robot also deploys a obstacle avoidance algorithm when working in wheeled mode.
Keywords: Anti-Personnel Landmines, Anti-Tank Landmines, Frame Walking, Ground Penetrating Radar, Hybrid Locomotion.