Pneumatic Surfactant Assisted Soil Digger

To address the Air Force need for an unconventional means for digging by small subterranean vehicles to more effectively engage hard and deeply buried targets, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Pneumatic Surfactant Assisted Soil Digger (PSASD) based on three major innovations: (1) significant reduction soil strength/hardness due to specially selected surfactant adsorption by soil particles, (2) soil erosion by pulsed air vortexes created by an air jet nozzle with a pulse frequency close to the resonant frequency of the soil particles cementing the soil, and (3) removal of disintegrated soil by pneumatic suction. These innovations will enable the PSASD system to begin digging without preliminary excavation. It will meet the Air Force requirement for a form factor of less than 12 inches. In Phase I POC will demonstrate the feasibility of PSASD system performance in laboratory experiments and identify an optimal design for Phase II. In Phase II POC plans to develop an optimized prototype ready for field test and demonstration.