Engineers Deploy Robot for Support

  • Published
  • By Mindy Cooper
  • AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla . --  Two engineers from the Air Force Research Laboratory's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom to provide robotic system support.

Air Force officials requested in-country support for the Mine Area Clearance Equipment, a robotic mine clearing system based on the Danish Hydrema mine flail. Mr. William Lewis, the Robotics Research Field Test Director and 1st Lt. Shawntara Govan, the Robotics Project Officer, were selected to take the MACE into the field.

MACE was previously converted from a man-in-the-seat vehicle to a remotely controlled system by engineers, in order to remove military personnel from dangerous mine clearing situations and to improve driving and position accuracy. The vehicle was reconfigured at the request of the Headquarters Air Combat Command Civil Engineering. Air Force engineers requested AFRL engineers due to their experience and success with a number of robotic vehicles.

MACE was delivered to AFRL, where it was equipped with the remote system. The system, developed by the Advanced Robotics Team using the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems, is operated via radio frequency using a controller, a laptop computer, and an Operator Control Station that houses the Ethernet and power for the system. A high-end differential Global Positioning System was integrated which allows the remote operator to more precisely control the vehicle and provides positioning feedback to ensure more accurate area coverage. The Advanced Robotic Team engineers completed the programming and code work necessary to send and receive the required signals and messages. The conversion took nine months.

After the conversion was completed and the MACE was deemed ready to use in the field, the engineers were selected and deployed to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. They spent three weeks in the field teaching military personnel how to operate the system and tweaking the system so that it would be at optimal performance level for the areas it would be used to clear.

"We performed our initial operational demonstration in an area that had been previously cleared by Army mine clearing vehicles of 117 explosives items," Lieutenant Govan said, "Using the MACE and its GPS grid plotting capabilities, 17 additional land mines were detonated in a 50'x100' area. "

After the initial demonstration, the engineers enhanced the GPS capabilities by configuring the way-points for the area to be cleared. The team then took the MACE out again and cleared 44,380 square feet in four hours and they were able to successfully detonate 37 more mines for a total of 54 in an area that had already been cleared, but not proofed. The vehicle allowed Bagram Airfield personnel to reduce the time spent clearing areas and, more importantly, removed the operators from life endangering circumstances.