UGV IED and Metal Detector

A project by Joshua Genao, Ronald Hanifen, Hernan Carvajal, and Javier Palomo

Current mine removal methods are risky and dangerous. It is significantly advantageous to have a robot perform the traversal of mine fields to not only find and record the location of mines, but to create a clear path that will allow traversal of a minefield with significantly less danger. That is the aim for this project, using the Robot Operating System (ROS) to create a semi-autonomous robot that will scour land for mines and create a clear path. Doing so will incorporate many aspects of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and will provide a beneficial robot for the detection of mines also known as the Unmanned Ground Vehicle Mine Detector.

At the current rate of clearing mines, it will take humans thousands of years to clear all active landmines in the world, and countless more detecting for buried Unexploited Ordinance (UXO) that can be used for IEDs. There is an overbearing concern for land mines in many other countries, and this system will be designed to combat these problems. That is where the motivation for our Senior Design project resides.

The goal for this project is to create an autonomous vehicle that will be able to start at an established starting point and end up at and established end point, determining a clear path along the way.