Robot defuses car bombs
If a car bomb is suspected, robots could in future serve the police or the army as a mobile evacuation squad.
As part of the EU FP7 research program, researchers from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), together with partner institutions from four countries, have developed the "Autonomous Vehicle Emergency Recovery Tool"(Avert) has been developed. It enables emergency services to quickly and safely remove blocking or suspicious vehicles from sensitive positions - for example, in parking garages, underground garages or tunnels.
Equipped with cameras and sensors, the robot creates a 3D image of the entire scene on site and subsequently moves autonomously to the vicinity of the vehicle to be moved. The robot then deploys four flat mini-robots - known as "bogies" - equipped with scanners. These autonomously drive under the wheels of the vehicle and lift it a few centimeters. The emergency services then have the option of driving the vehicle away remotely or semi-automatically. This is made possible by a system developed at the Institute for Mechatronic Systems (IMS) at the ZHAW School of Engineering developed control system for the Avert overall system, as it is called.
Previous methods of removing such vehicles were very dangerous for the defusers, especially if the vehicles were located in hard-to-reach places. In collaboration with bomb disposal specialists in Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland (Zurich Airport Police and the Scientific Service of the Zurich City Police), Avert was tailored to practical needs, the idw information service writes. Over the past few months, the robot has already proven itself in various test scenarios.
Avert project video are here to find.
