Power tillers for demining: Blast test

Abstract

Power tillers are very simple and versatile machines with large scale diffusion in developing countries, where they are commonly used both for agriculture and for transportation purposes. A new integrated participatory approach that makes use of and improves local end-users knowledge has been used to design a new robotic system for humanitarian demining applications in Sri Lanka, using power tiller as core module. A demining machine composed by a tractor unit, a ground processing tool and a vegetation cutting tool is here presented together with results obtained from the first blast test on the preliminary version of tractor unit armouring. Different breakable connections between wheels and axle have been designed to cause physical detachment and interrupt the transmission of the shock wave released by the explosion of a mine under one wheel. Effects of explosions on different types of wheels and on the chassis have been recorded and commented. Keywords: integrated participatory design, modularity, simpleffectiveness, semi-autonomous robot, blast test.