A six-legged robot-based system for humanitarian demining missions

Removal of antipersonnel landmines is a worldwide problem currently requiring the use of new technologies such as improved sensors and efficient mobile robots. This paper is focused on the description of a system that relies on a walking robot that carries sensors to detect and locate antipersonnel landmines efficiently and effectively. The paper describes the main features of the walking robot and additional equipment purposefully developed for this kind of application. The overall system consists of a sensor head that can detect certain landmine types, a manipulator to move the sensor head over large areas, a locating system based on a global positioning system, a remote supervisor computer and the SILO6 walking robot used as the subsystems' carrier. The whole system has been configured to work in a semi-autonomous mode with a view also to robot mobility and energy efficiency. Some of the achievements already accomplished with this system are reported. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.