Rugged Automated Training System

Hostile conflicts leave behind millions of armed landmines in developing countries throughout the globe. Humanitarian demining is hazardous and labor intensive. A promising development in landmine detection is using small, olfactory sensitive animals trained to act as biosensor detectors. But current methods require skilled trainers following strict protocols, and this extensive time and effort is a limiting step in using animals for landmine detection. In addition, trainer skill level, attention to procedures, and animal performance record keeping all introduce unwanted variables into the process. A rugged automated trainer system is a solution that will provide increased consistency and accuracy, and will increase output by reducing limits on training capacity and efficiency that are due to labor. CTSi and Bucknell University have identified an innovative animal training approach which will deliver large quantities of trained animals. Automation enables use of much less labor and allows ordinary people to supervise an animal training program. Our system will allow precise control stimulus and response conditions, and provide informative, detailed data on training status and performance feedback for many individual animals. It is designed to operate in adverse environmental conditions. Additionally, the approach can easily be expanded and adapted to other humanitarian and security applications.