Brian Smith's Robotics Research
Main	Contributors	Concept	The Robots	Gallery
Concept and Application of this Research Project
This research project is intended to develop and/or integrate new robotics technologies involving sensor fusion, inter-robot communications and multi-robot systems. The ultimate goal of the research is to establish a basis for a highly automated robotic system that can be used in the global humanitarian demining effort. Clearing minefields after conflict is of the utmost importance in restoring productive land use and in protecting millions of civilians from harm in as many as eighty different countries. However, current landmine removal techniques cannot resolve the problem because they are extremely dangerous, time consuming, and expensive. Thousands of civilians still unnecessarily lose life and limb to landmines every single year. This project will employ six small mobile robots that will systematically search a very small, simulated minefield. Using a radio frequency transceiver, each robot will communicate with a nearby personal computer, which will interpret data and map out the robots’ courses of action. With this division of labor in place, the inexpensive and more expendable robots will be in the 'minefield' while the much more expensive computer will remain entirely out of harm’s way. This concept, if applied to an actual demining task, could dramatically reduce the number of technicians and the cost required to remove landmines in an affected area. In addition, the use of multiple robots would likely accelerate the search and identification processes in the minefield.
This website's design and contents are property of Brian Smith. If you would like to reproduce any part of this site, please ask me first. You can contact me with any comments, suggestions, or questions at thisisbrians@gmail.com.