Extensible Continuum Manipulator Toward Insitu Explosive Ordnance Disposal

Abstract

Homemade bombs made by terrorists threaten seriously the social public security. Now, it is still a challenge to guarantee safety without destroying bombs. Compared with the destructive explosive disposal approach employing rigid robots, we proposed an insitu explosive disposal method, which takes advantage of an extensible continuum manipulator to pass through obstacles and cut wires by endeffector. The springbased continuum manipulator has sixdegreesoffreedom and is 400 mm in length but only 15 mm in diameter. Also, we have created only a 15 g endeffector that can cut 1mmdiameter copper wire and embed a miniature camera. According to the experiment, a single continuum manipulator has around 2 mm repeatability accuracy and can carry a 50 g weight. Without special training, the operator can control the integrated explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) robot to complete a simulation mission in approximately five minutes. This paper broadens the application of the continuum manipulator and gives a unique solution for EOD robots.