DYLEMA: Using walking robots for landmine detection and location

Abstract

Detection and removal of antipersonnel landmines is an important worldwide concern. A huge
\nnumber of landmines has been deployed over the last twenty years, and demining will take
\nseveral more decades, even if no more mines were deployed in future. An adequate mineclearance
\nrate can only be achieved by using new technologies such as improved sensors,
\nefficient manipulators and mobile robots. This paper presents some basic ideas on the
\nconfiguration of a mobile system for detecting and locating antipersonnel landmines efficiently
\nand effectively. The paper describes the main features of the overall system, which consists of
\na sensor head that can detect certain landmine types, a manipulator to move the sensor head
\nover large areas, a locating system based on a global-positioning system, a remote supervisor
\ncomputer and a legged robot used as the subsystems’ carrier. The whole system has been
\nconfigured to work in a semi-autonomous mode with a view also to robot mobility and
\nenergy efficiency.