Extensible Continuum Manipulator Toward In-situ Explosive Ordnance Disposal

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 in-situ explosive disposal method, which takes advantage of an extensible continuum manipulator to pass through obstacles and cut wires by end-effector. The spring-based continuum manipulator has six-degrees-of-freedom and is 400 mm in length but only 15 mm in diameter. Also, we have created only a 15 g end-effector that can cut 1-mm-diameter 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.