Mechatronics for Humanitarian Explosive Ordnance Disposal in Cambodia

Abstract

Over the past six years, researchers at Villanova University (VU) and the Golden West Humanitarian Foundation (GWHF) have developed an integrated research and educational program focused on the use of mechatronics and robotics in humanitarian explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and mine action. In the following article, I will talk about this program, discuss two ongoing projects - a low-cost EOD robot and an automated ordnance identification system - and talk about how we have successfully integrated students in the work. There are many opportunities for the DSCD community to get involved in this area and hopefully this article will pique your interest.

Shared control with obstacle avoidance for UGVs

“…The shared trajectory tracking controller with collision avoidance (49) is the result of the combination of the Lyapunov-based trajectory tracking controller (15), the human control input (38), and the collision avoidance controller (33), thus the stability analysis of the closed-loop human-robot shared control system (6) can be divided into: 1) the stability of the closed-loop system (6) when we apply only the Lyapunov-based trajectory tracking controller (15); 2) the stability of ( 6) when we apply only human control input (38); 3) the stability of ( 6) when we combined ( 15) and ( 38); and 4) the forward invariant of the safe graph space (19). The closed loop system ( 6) is asymptotically stable when we apply only the Lyapunov-based trajectory tracking controller ( 15) is asymptotically stable according to [60,Section 5.4].…”

“…To prove the stability of the closed-loop system (6) when ( 15) and ( 38) are combined, we need to prove that the shared controller (34) is bounded. Using the results of [21], if (15) is bounded, and ( 38) is bounded, then ( 34) is also bounded. The boundedness of ( 38) is ensured by assuming that the speed of the moving obstacles is bounded.…”

“…The use of shared control can also reduce mission times and limit risks to both first responders and victims by providing a means to assess the stability of damaged structures and preplan a rescue mission using visual observations from thermal cameras [7], or measurements of gas/chemical concentrations [8] obtained during a rapid UGV survey. Other applications which can greatly benefit from the shared control of uncrewed ground vehicles by taking advantage of the presence of a human expert include: 1) precision agriculture, where a farmer's experience can be used to guide spraying, inspection, and harvesting operations [9], [10], [11]; 2) infrastructure inspection [12]; 3) firefighting, where UGVs can be used to determine the location of fires and the presence of dangerous gases to assist with intervention planning [13]; 4) mining [14]; and 5) in humanitarian/relief operations, such as the detection and removal of land mines [15].…”

Analysis of the Intuitive Teleoperated System of the TxRob Multimodal Robot

“…For a successful operation there must be trust between the operator and the robotic partner, the cobots are designed with the purpose that the robot can support the various tasks of the operator, for them the human-robot interaction (HRI) is paramount. HRI covers the various fields such as design, understanding and evaluation of robotic systems, which involve humans and robots interacting through communication [3], [4]. The trust with a cobot can decrease drastically if it provides constant wrong information in risky situations, therefore a good robotic system that increases the trust with cobots is necessary [5].…”

Analysis of a permanent magnet DC motor explosion-removal robot system based on thermal energy optimization control

“…Using finite element analysis, you can describe the temperature rise of each part of the motor accurately. However, this method is very cumbersome to model and cannot be entirely suitable for the variable motor load on the robot, and the lumped analysis method is too simplified and not suitable for the actual life estimation of the motor [1].…”