Design of mine detection robot for Korean mine field

This paper presents the critical design constraints of mine detection robots for Korean minefield. As a part of a demining robot development project, the environment of Korean minefield was investigated, and the requirements for suitable robot design were determined. Most of landmines in Korean minefield were buried close to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) more than half of a century ago. The areas have not been urbanized at all since the Korea War, and the potential locations of the explosives by military tactics have been covered by vegetation. Therefore, at the initial stage of the demining robot system development, the target areas were investigated and the suitable design for Korean minefield terrain was determined. The design includes a track type main platform with a simple moving arm and a mine detection sensor (consists of a metal detector and a GPR at this stage). In addition, in order to maintain the effective distance between the landmine sensors and ground surface, a distance sensing technique for terrain adaptability was developed and briefly introduced in this paper. The overall design of this robot was determined by considering the speed of the whole mine detection process and a point of economic view to replace human in minefield. Thus, the detail of the conceptual design and the mine detection scenario is presented in this paper.