Proceedings Article | 16 April 2008
KEYWORDS: Robots, Sensors, Land mines, Robotics, Unmanned aerial vehicles, Explosives, Robotic systems, Mining, Airborne remote sensing, Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy
The Army Future Combat System (FCS) Operational Requirement Document has identified a number of advanced robot
tactical behavior requirements to enable the Future Brigade Combat Team (FBCT). The FBCT advanced tactical
behaviors include Sentinel Behavior, Obstacle Avoidance Behavior, and Scaled Levels of Human-Machine control
Behavior. The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, (TRADOC) Maneuver Support Center (MANSCEN) has
also documented a number of robotic behavior requirements for the Army non FCS forces such as the Infantry Brigade
Combat Team (IBCT), Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT), and Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT). The general
categories of useful robot tactical behaviors include Ground/Air Mobility behaviors, Tactical Mission behaviors,
Manned-Unmanned Teaming behaviors, and Soldier-Robot Interface behaviors. Many DoD research and development
centers are achieving the necessary components necessary for artificial tactical behaviors for ground and air robots to
include the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command
(RDECOM), Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center, US Army Tank-Automotive Research,
Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and non DoD labs such as Department of Energy (DOL).
With the support of the Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise (JGRE) through DoD and non DoD labs the Army Maneuver
Support Center has recently concluded successful field trails of ground and air robots with specialized tactical behaviors
and sensors to enable semi autonomous detection, reporting, and marking of explosive hazards to include Improvised
Explosive Devices (IED) and landmines. A specific goal of this effort was to assess how collaborative behaviors for
multiple unmanned air and ground vehicles can reduce risks to Soldiers and increase efficiency for on and off route
explosive hazard detection, reporting, and marking.
This paper discusses experimental results achieved with a robotic countermine system that utilizes autonomous behaviors
and a mixed-initiative control scheme to address the challenges of detecting and marking buried landmines. Emerging
requirements for robotic countermine operations are outlined as are the technologies developed under this effort to
address them. A first experiment shows that the resulting system was able to find and mark landmines with a very low
level of human involvement. In addition, the data indicates that the robotic system is able to decrease the time to find
mines and increase the detection accuracy and reliability. Finally, the paper presents current efforts to incorporate new
countermine sensors and port the resulting behaviors to two fielded military systems for rigorous assessing.
