Soil Whipping Machine for Detonating Anti-Personnel Mines

摘要

Landmines are threat to human lives in one-third of the countries in the developing world. The current, acceptable mine detecting and clearing and neutralization practices use manual methods. Several machines have been developed, but most of them havehad limited success. A soil whipping machine was developed as part of a system to clear landmines for farming operations. The whipping machine whips the soil surface with heavy long chains. The length of the whipping part of the chains is long enough tocover the whole soil surface in relation to the forward velocity, the number of chains around the drum, and the rotation of the whipping chains. The forces of the whipping chains penetrate the soil over the mines and activate them. The whipping machinewas mounted on a remote controlled tractor and powered by an auxiliary motor and hydrostatic transmission. The whipping machine was found to detonate all the land mines in field tests.