Mobile robot hydro-destroyers are an effective means of combating explosive devices in anti-terrorist operations.

Mobile robot hydro-destroyers are an effective means of combating explosive devices in anti-terrorist operations.

Elena Nikolaevna PELEVINA

Mobile robot hydro-destroyers are
an effective means of combating explosive devices in anti-terrorist operations

Source: magazine «Special Equipment and Communications» No. 1 2008

Every year, the number of crimes committed with the use of explosive devices increases in the world. In addition to high efficiency, the attractiveness of using explosive devices for terrorists is due to the poor detection rate of this type of crime.

To detect explosive devices, many countries have created special mobile robotic systems that ensure the effective and safe performance of necessary explosive engineering work for the personnel of the units.

In this regard, such robotic systems as «Varan», «Vezdekhod-TM5», «Bogomol» and others have proven themselves well in our country and a number of other countries. These systems are designed for remote visual reconnaissance, search and neutralization of explosive objects by destroying them or loading them into special containers, performing transport and technological operations with explosive devices, as well as operations to ensure access to explosive devices.

The main means of combating explosive devices used in such mobile robotic systems are barrel destroyers.

Table 1 shows the technical characteristics of the mobile robotic complex (MRK) «Varan» [1]:

Table 1

The Vezdekhod-TM5 MRK is similar to the Varan MRK, but it is more mobile, significantly lighter and smaller in size, for example, it can fit in an elevator. It is equipped with an improved video surveillance system and new manipulator schemes.

«Varan» is a heavier robot, not all the operations that it performs are within the capabilities of the MRK «Vesdekhod-TM5». It has a greater load-carrying capacity.

There is a possibility of joint operation of these complexes.

The technical characteristics of the MRK «Bogomol» are similar to «Varan» and «Vesdekhod-TM5», the difference is in the use of a chassis with variable geometry and a destroyer that neutralizes an explosive device with a powerful air stream.

The main source of information about the surrounding environment in all mobile robotic complexes is technical vision.

Let's take a closer look at the television system of the MRK «Varan».

For visual control over the operation of the MRK «Varan» is equipped with a television system and an external video surveillance system.

The television system includes:

• three overview TV cameras that perform the functions of monitoring the surrounding environment;
• one course TV camera, performing the functions of monitoring the road in the immediate vicinity of the mobile robot and the position of the tracks in relation to the roadway and their condition;
• one aiming TV camera, allowing monitoring of the operation of the gripping device and the guidance of hydraulic barrel destroyers to the explosive device.

All overview TV cameras are color with a wide-angle lens. They display images with a resolution of at least 380 TV lines. One overview camera is equipped with a zoom lens, allowing for zooming in (enlarging) the image.

Overview TV cameras are installed on two-stage guidance mechanisms, allowing for virtually all-round surveillance. The guidance mechanisms are identical, with two guidance speeds for TV cameras – in the vertical and horizontal planes.

The maximum guidance speed for TV cameras horizontally and vertically is 10 deg/sec.

The course TV camera is a color camera with a wide-angle lens without a zoom lens, rigidly mounted in the front part of the mobile robot. The aiming color TV camera without a zoom lens is rigidly mounted on the hand of the mobile robot.

The television system is controlled remotely from the control panel, and visual information about the operation of the mobile robot is displayed on the control panel monitor.

The remote video surveillance system consists of:

• a video unit, which includes a color video camera with a zoom lens, a video signal amplifier, and an illuminator (headlight). The video unit is designed to allow the operator to monitor the mobile robot and the object being examined;
• an interface unit, designed to convert information received from the remote video surveillance system control panel into control signals for television cameras and a guidance mechanism;
• a two-stage guidance mechanism, designed to guide the video unit to the mobile robot or the object being examined;
• a tripod designed to install an autonomous power source, a video unit with a guidance mechanism and a coupling unit;
• a reel with a control cable designed to transmit a video signal and control commands;
• a remote control for a remote video surveillance system designed to control the modes of a TV camera and a two-stage guidance mechanism;
• a color monitor;
• a set of cables.

The remote video surveillance system is controlled remotely from the control panel, and visual information about the operation of the mobile robot is displayed on the monitor.

Hydrodynamic destroyers must ensure reliable destruction of explosive objects, as well as reduce the risk of explosion of such an object to a minimum, which is important when conducting demining operations in urban and industrial areas in peacetime.

The barrel hydrodynamic destroyer operates on the principle of creating a powerful hydraulic jet with a speed of up to 220 — 300 m/s and capable of destroying explosive objects in relatively fragile casings.

The use of explosive devices with fragile casings by terrorists is explained by the following:

• explosive devices in such casings do not attract attention to themselves (they are often found in shopping bags, packages, etc.);
• provided that the explosive power and the same type of explosive are the same, the radius of destruction (when using fragile casings) increases.

One of the ways to install a hydro-destroyer in a mobile robotic complex is to mount it in a holder consisting of a base on which the clamps for mounting the destroyer are fixed, and a laser target designator.

Photo 1. Hydro-destroyer holder,
installed in the gripping device of the manipulator

The holder of the destroyer is secured in the gripping device of the manipulator of the mobile robotic complex (photo 1) and ensures the attachment and guidance of the barrel destroyer to the target using a laser target designator and a television system.

The holder is located in the gripping device of the manipulator in such a way that damage to the mobile robot by the jet of the hydro-destroyer acting in the hemisphere opposite the direction from the target is excluded.

It is also possible to use two hydraulic destroyers simultaneously. For this purpose, a T-shaped holder is used (photo 2), structurally designed as a pipe on which a platform for the manipulator's gripping device is installed.

Photo 2. T-shaped holder of the destroyer,
installed in the gripping device of the mobile robotic complex

Two destroyer holders are fixed on the T-shaped holder, which rotate in the horizontal plane at an angle from 0 to 30 degrees. The distance between the holders is 125 — 470 mm. Depending on the rotation angle of the hydrodestroyers and the distance between them, the range (of the hydrodestroyers) varies from 3 to 13.5 m.

The barrel hydrodestroyers are placed in the holders.

The holders are installed in a horizontal position at the required angle, which is determined by the distance to the intersection point of the destroyers' fire lines.

The position of the intersection point is controlled by laser target designators, where the correct position of the destroyers relative to the target corresponds to the coincidence of the laser target designator markers on the illuminated object to be destroyed.

The platform is captured by the jaws of the manipulator's gripping device, and the operator aims the hydro-destroyers at the target from the remote control, focusing on the image received from the television camera.

The accuracy of the hydro-destroyer's guidance in this case depends on the accuracy of the positioning of the manipulator's links.

Below are examples of the practical application of the described complexes.

1. During the regional command and staff exercises on anti-terrorism (March 2003) in the Kurgan region, an explosive device was defused using the mobile robotic complex «Varan» [2].
2. In March 2006, terrorists who had seized Gymnasium No. 9 were neutralized during exercises in Murmansk. An explosive device was planted in the gymnasium’s gymnasium, which was subsequently neutralized by the Varan robot [3].
3. During large-scale exercises in Barnaul (May 2006), an explosive device was neutralized with the help of the Varan robot [4].
4. Seismological monitoring showed that a depression in the earth’s surface had formed in Perm Krai on July 31, 2007. The depression area was surveyed with the help of the Varan MRK [5].
5. In Chelyabinsk (2007), as part of large-scale exercises, security forces neutralized a building containing explosives with the help of the special radio-controlled robot Bogomol [6].

In conclusion, the following should be noted.

Due to the limited supply of ammunition (liquid) for the hydro-destroyer, the main task in creating the control system is to develop a high-precision guidance system that allows for the maximum probability of neutralizing explosive objects.

This can be achieved by creating a guidance unit based on a precision drive with high positioning accuracy (fractions of a micron) and a significant (up to tens of thousands) speed control range.

With further modernization, it is possible to improve the hydro-destroyer control system using gyroscopic or laser stabilization systems in order to destroy objects during the movement of the robotic complex.

Literature

1. Mobile robotic complex «Varan»./Catalog of JSC «SKB PA», 2005.
2. www.kik.kdsu.ru
3. www.b-port/photo_reportage/archive
4. vgtrk
5. prm.ru
6. chelybinsk.ru