ON UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE DETECTION, LOCATION, AND CHARACTERIZATION USING AN INSTRUMENTED ROVER OPERATED IN A SUPERVISED AUTONOMOUS MODE

Explosive ordnance disposal operations begin with finding the ordnance, which may consist of land mines, Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), and Unexploded Ordnance (UxO) such as 155 mm rounds or bombs. We refer to all these disparate items collectively as Explosive Remnants of War (RMW) in this proposal. As implemented today, finding RMWs is very slow, dangerous work that places human lives at risk. The technologies used create narrow, linear paths of examined territory rather than sweep large areas. Some systems forgo careful ordnance removal in favor of intentionally detonating explosive devices to create a narrow path through a minefield. This proposal describes the Supervised Autonomous Ground Examiner robot (SAGEbot) System which consists of three major parts: the central Control Station (CCS) contains the high-value operator workstations, computing resources, and human operators; Uncrewed Ground Vehicles (UGV) autonomously follow prescribed paths developed by path planning software in the CSS; and instrumented Cone Penetrometers (CP) are installed by the UGV(s) by hammering them into the ground. The hammering creates a seismic signal that is reflected by subsurface soil discontinuities / anomalies and received by CPs that are already installed. Computer software in the CCS then analyzes the seismic data to identify and locate the discontinuities for ordnance detection, verification, classification, and precise geolocation (DVC&G). The SAGEbot System is highly automated. Humans make key decisions, such as site selection, and develop external references, such as the Digital Surface Map (DSM). After these preliminary steps, the work is accomplished with advanced software such as Artificial Intelligence and Uncrewed Ground Vehicles (UGV) working under the general supervision of a human operator. The final decision to declare the site investigation complete again rests with a human.