Abstract
The over 100 million landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) are buried in disaster-affected countries.
Although significant efforts have been made at addressing this problem, few have resulted in practical removal tools, especially in the hazardous, yet essential, LV-3 survey.
We propose a mechanical master-slave hand to remove landmines and UXOs. At first, we have made a test model (Mine Hand-1) that features symmetric operation. But the consultation with expert deminers from Afghanistan suggested the need for a lightweight and simple design.
The improved model, Mine Hand-2, is 1/6th the weight, easily carried, and simpler to maintain. Through blasting experiments, which show that the Mine Hand-2 is robust for average landmines, this model is estimated to be practical.
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Naota Furihata received the B.Eng. degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) in 2003 and M.Eng. degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Tokyo Tech in 2005. His research interests include design of demining tools. Currently, he is employed at the Mitsui & Co., Ltd.
Shigeo Hirose received the B. E. degree with first class honors in Mechanical Engineering from Yokohama National University in 1971, and the M. E. and Dr. E. degrees in Control Engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1973 and 1976, respectively. From 1976 to 1979 he was a Research Associate, from 1979 to 1992 an Associate Professor and since 1992 he has been a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is the Fellow of both IEEE and Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers. His research interest is in design of novel robotic mechanisms and its control. He awarded more than 30 prizes from academic societies; these include the first Pioneer in Robotics and Automation Award in 1999 and Best Conference Paper Award in 1995 both from IEEE Robotics & Automation Society. Prof. Hirose has published more than 200 academic papers as well as several books, including “Snake Inspired Robots” (Kogyo-chosakai Publishing Co. Ltd, 1987, in Japanese), “Robotics” (Shokabo Publishing Co. Ltd., 1987, in Japanese), and “Biologically Inspired Robots” (Oxford University Press, 1993).
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Furihata, N., Hirose, S. Development of Mine Hands: Extended Prodder for Protected Demining Operation. Auton Robot 18, 337–350 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-005-6844-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-005-6844-7