Four Johns Hopkins undergraduate engineering students
have designed and built a remote-controlled robotic vehicle
to find deadly land mines in rugged terrain and mark their
location with a spray of paint. The prototype has been
given to professional explosive detection researchers as a
model for a low-cost robot that humanitarian groups and
military troops could use to prevent mine-related deaths
and injuries.
The project resulted from a challenge to the students
by Carl V. Nelson, a principal staff physicist at the
university's Applied
Physics Laboratory. Nelson had developed sensors to
help detect land mines but didn't have a device to carry
these sensors into areas of thick vegetation, where
explosives are often hidden. He presented his requirements
last fall to a team of students enrolled in the
two-semester Engineering Design Project course offered by
the Whiting School's
Department of Mechanical
Engineering.
"I asked the students to develop a vehicle that could
get off the road, off the clear paths and go into rougher
terrain like bushes and high grass, where mine detection
would be difficult to do by hand," Nelson said.
The need for such a device was clear. Nelson pointed
to a United Nations estimate that more than 100 million
land mines are deployed in 70 countries worldwide, planted
during military conflicts dating back as far as World War
II. The cheap but highly dangerous devices can be set off
by civilians as well as soldiers, and more than 2,000
people are killed or maimed by mine explosions each month,
the United Nations estimates. Nelson is one of many
researchers looking for safe, efficient and relatively
inexpensive ways to locate the hazards.
To carry Nelson's sensors through rough terrain, the
Johns Hopkins students designed a two-piece vehicle that
rolls on tank-type treads. The front portion moves the
robot, using two cordless power drill motors connected to a
sealed lead-acid battery. Atop the drive segment is a color
video camera, enabling a human operator to see what the
robot encounters.
The drive segment is attached to a second unit that
houses a simple metal detection coil obtained from an
off-the-shelf treasure-hunting device. (This metal detector
would be replaced by more sophisticated sensors if the
model is utilized by funded researchers.) The rear segment
also is equipped with a small storage tank and a spray
paint nozzle to mark the spot where a possible mine is
located. The vehicle can spray about 40 times before the
paint tank must be recharged.
To guide the robot from a safe distance, the students
constructed a battery-powered controller with a joystick to
steer the vehicle. The controller also features a small
video screen displaying real-time images from the robot's
camera. When metal is detected, a "beep" is heard over a
speaker on the controller or through headphones worn by the
operator. A switch on the controller can then activate the
paint sprayer to mark the spot. The robot's camera
transmits video up to about 100 feet from the controller;
the vehicle's movement can be controlled from a distance of
about 500 feet.
The robotic vehicle was built largely with plastic and
other nonmetal parts to reduce costs and weight. In
addition, using nonmetal parts avoids triggering false
positive readings from the mine detector. The two-segment
design also spreads out the robot's weight, making the
device less likely to set off a mine.
The four inventors were Edoardo Biancheri, of Rio De
Janeiro, Brazil; Dan Hake, from Wilton, Conn.; Dat Truong,
from Methuen, Mass.; and Landon Unninayar, from Columbia,
Md. Hake, Truong and Unninayar were mechanical engineering
majors who graduated from Johns Hopkins in May. Biancheri
plans to complete his undergraduate studies in December
with a double major in mechanical engineering and
economics.
Working within a sponsored budget of $8,000, the
students spent about $5,000 to design and build their
prototype. They estimate the vehicle could be mass-produced
for $1,000 or less, not including the cost of more
sophisticated detection sensors. Nelson plans to show the
prototype to his U.S. Army funding sponsors as an example
of the type of low-cost mine detection robot that could
help prevent death and injury worldwide.
The land-mine-detection robot was one of nine Johns
Hopkins projects completed this year by undergraduates in
the engineering design course taught by Andrew F. Conn.
Each team of three or four students, working within budgets
of up to $10,000, had to design a device, purchase or
fabricate the parts and assemble the final product.
Corporations, government agencies and nonprofit groups
provided the assignments and funding.To see a video about
the project, go to
www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/audio-video/mines.html.
GO TO