PEACE: An Excavation-Type Demining Robot for Anti-Personnel Mines

We propose an excavation-type demining robot PEACE for farmland aiming at “complete removal” and “automation.”(Mori et al., 2003, Mori et al., 2005) The reason why we choose farmland as the demining area is as follows: farmland is such an area where local people cannot help entering to live, so it should be given the highest priority (Jimbo, 1997). PEACE is designed to clear APMs (anti-personnel mines) after disposing ATMs (anti-tank mines) and UXOs (unexploded ordnances). Needless to say, the first keyword “complete removal” is inevitable and is the most important. The second one “automation” has two meanings, that is, safety and efficiency. In the conventional research, detection and removal of mines are considered as different works, and the removal is after the detection. However, in the case of the excavation-type demining robot, detecting work will be omitted because the robot disposes of all mines in the target area. As the result, no error caused in the detecting work brings the demining rate near to 100%. Currently, the demining work mainly depends on hazardous manual removal by humans; it presents serious safety and efficiency issues. For increased safety and efficiency, some largesized machines have been developed. For example, the German MgM Rotar rotates a cylindrical cage attached in front of the body and separates mines from soil (see Fig. 1, Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, 2002; Shibata, 2001). The RHINO Earth Tiller, also made in Germany, has a large-sized rotor in front of the body; it crushes mines while tilling soil (see Fig. 2, Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, 2006). The advantages of MgM Rotar and RHINO are a high clearance capability (99%) and high efficiency respectively. In Japan, Yamanashi Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. has developed a demining machine based on a hydraulic shovel. A rotary cutter attached to the end of the arm destroys mines; the cutter is also used for cutting grasses and bushes. Although many machines with various techniques have been developed, a comprehensive solution that is superior to human manual removal remains elusive. Salient problems are the demining rate, limitation of demining area (MgM Rotar), prohibitive weight and limitation of mine type (RHINO Earth Tiller), and demining efficiency (MgM Rotar, and the demining machine made by Yamanashi Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.). Because those machines are operated manually or