Development of a Machine for Humanitarian Mineclearance

摘要

The paper presents important factors related to development and testing of a humanitarian mine-clearance machine. A light armoured 5-ton tracked machine on remote control was constructed, featuring small dimensions and high cross-country capability. The operating tool for digging and mine clearance is a flail mounted in the front, which destroys the smallest antipersonnel mines and the most dangerous antipersonnel jump mines. Mine destruction is being performed by the force of impact tools of appropriate shape – hammers at the end of the flail chains. Flail rotation and hammer strokes cause digging ground up to twenty centimetres, together with mine destruction or activation. The machine features very high performance in soil processing in accordance with UN humanitarian mine clearance technology. The machine is intended for the mine clearance of earth grounds, mine-suspected grounds around houses and grounds that cannot be accessed by bigger machines. The performed calculations of the machine have resulted in design solutions that showed good results in practice. The required force of the hammer pulse has been determined in order to be able to overcome the resistance from cutting and soil density resistance. The required technological velocity of the machine and tool has been calculated. This determines the soil processing density and consequently the flail operation tool has been designed. Original hydrostatic transmission for vehicle movement and digging of ground has been developed. Low centre of gravity, low profile and aerodynamic shape towards the explosion front have been designed, which is a fully authentic approach to de-mining machine design development. The results of the tests of machines in real and controlled conditions are presented in the paper, showing high grade performance regarding mine clearance quality. This is a valuable contribution to the theory and practice of humanitarian mine clearance.