Low-cost explosive ordnance disposal robot for deployment in Southeast Asia

Abstract

We present a low-cost explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) robot, which grew out of a collaboration between Villanova University (VU) and the Golden West Humanitarian Foundation (GWHF). Unexploded ordnance (UXO) are commonplace in the developing world. Ideally, the handling of UXO would be carried out using EOD robots, like those employed by the US military. However, these devices are cost prohibitive for developing world governments and municipalities and, perhaps, not ideally suited for deployment by them. The low-cost EOD bot described in this paper, was conceived with the developing world in mind through a series of senior design projects and was designed to maintain functionality (e.g. ability to lift and drag heavy loads, place charges, etc.) while reducing cost. This is achieved through well thought out design tradeoffs and the use of lower-cost hardware. The general design of this robot, a discussion of design tradeoffs, and preliminary field tests are presented.