Preliminary Design and Feasibility Study of a 6-Degree of Freedom Robot for Excavation of Unexploded Landmine

At present, the Sensing and Access Control R&D for Humanitarian Mine Action project has been carrying out by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Chiba University's group join to this project. Our effort is to develop a small vehicle for mine detection and clearance. Specifically we are concerned with the development of a 6 degree-of-freedom robot arm for exposing buried anti-personnel mines, with plans of field-testing in Afghanistan in 2005. This paper describes the current state of development in the anti-personnel mine exposure and clearance system, focusing on the robot arm.