Humanitarian Robotics: Minefield Reconnaissance and Mapping

MUSES_SECRET: ORF-RE Project - © PAMI Research Group – University of Waterloo 1/22 1

Humanitarian Robotics:

Minefield Reconnaissance and Mapping

Alaa Khamis, PhD, SMIEEE

Suez University and Sypron Solutions

http://www.alaakhamis.orgURL:

http://www.alaakhamis.org/


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HUMANITARIAN DEMINING


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A landmine is an explosive device activated by a person or

vehicle, or command-detonated by electric wire or radio signal.

C. Stephan. The Landmine Action: Smart Book. Mine Action Information Center, 2004



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As of October 2015, 61 counties are affected by antipersonnel mines

Mine Contamination as of November 2015 [Courtesy: Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor ICBL-CMC]



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• Facts about landmine contamination problem

There exists about 2000

types of mines around the

world; among these, there are

more than 650 types of AP

mines.

While basic mine detection

and neutralizing

theologies remain almost the

same, mine technology

improved dramatically.

1 Anti-tank/vehicle mines • Blast mines • Shaped charge/Misznay Schardin effect • Full width mines • Side attack mines • Wide area mines

Anti-personnel mines • Fragmentation and stake mines • Shaped charge mines • Directional mines • Blast mines • Bounding mines • Flame mines • Chemical mines



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Mines cost between $3 and $30, but the

cost of removing them is $300 to $1000

(depending on the mine infected area and

the number of false alarms).

The cost of removing all existing mines

would be $50- to $100-billion.

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5,000 people, of whom 46% are children have been

falling victim to landmines and ERWs annually in many of

the countries affected by war or in post-conflict situations

around the world. Mines create millions of refugees or

internally displaced people.

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Known Mine/ERW casualties by civilian/military

status in 2013

Source: Landmine Monitor 2014




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One deminer is killed and two injured for

every 5000 successfully removed mines. 4

If demining efforts remain about the same

as they are now, and no new mines are laid,

it will still take 1100 years to get rid of all

the world’s active landmines and UXOs.

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Until recently, about 100,000 mines were

being removed, and about two million more

were planted. The annual rate of clearance is

far slower.

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In many of the most affected areas of the world, agriculture

is the mainstay of the economy. Landmines are planted in

fields, forests, around wells, water sources, and

hydroelectric installations, making these unusable, or

usable only at great risk.

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INITIATIVES


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◊ Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or

the Mine Ban Treaty, is a convention on the Prohibition of

the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-

Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, aims at eliminating

anti-personnel landmines (AP-mines) around the world. To

date, there are 162 States Parties to the treaty.

• Anti-personnel mine ban

INITIATIVES


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◊ International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)

http://www.icbl.org/

A coalition of non-governmental organizations

working for a world free of anti-personnel

mines and cluster munitions, where mine and

cluster munitions survivors see their rights

respected and can lead fulfilling lives. 1997 Nobel Peace Prize

◊ Landmine and Cluster Munition

Monitor is an initiative providing research

and monitoring for the International

Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and the

Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC)

http://www.the-monitor.org/

INITIATIVES


http://www.icbl.org/






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• Largest stocks of antipersonnel mines

State Stock

Russia 26.5 million

Pakistan estimated 6 million

India estimated 4-5 million

China “less than” 5 million

US 3 million

Total 45 million

• Mine clearance in 2009–2013

Year Mined area cleared (km2) AP mines destroyed AT mines destroyed

2009 198 255,000 37,000

2010 200 388,000 27,000

2011 190 325,000 29,900

2012 200 240,000 9,300

2013 185 275,000 4,500

Total 973 1,483,000 107,700

INITIATIVES


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◊ Others

United Nations Mine Action.

Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD)

Geneva Call

Mines Advisory Group

Canadian Landmine Foundation

International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW)

...

INITIATIVES


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LANDMINES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES


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In Egypt, ERW are a legacy and a result of

combat operations between Axis and Allied

forces during World War II, and between the

Egypt-Israel wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973.

The landmine and UXO contamination problem

significantly affects Egypt’s Western Desert

region, the Sinai Peninsula and areas near the

Suez Canal and Red Sea coast.

These contaminated areas represent 22% of the

total surface of Egypt.

LANDMINES AND UXOS IN EGYPT


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Contaminated Areas

Areas cleaned by the Army

It is estimated that there are 17.2 million of landmines and

UXOs in the North West Coast (NWC)

• 500,000 acres of land

good for agriculture

and 3.5 million acres

good for grazing;

• 70 million cubic meter

of mineral resources;

• 1.8 billion barrel of oil

and;

• 8.5 trillion Cubic

meter of natural gas



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Executive Secretariat for the Demining and Development of the North

West Coast, Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation

Landmine

Detection and

Disposal

Victim

Assistance

Mine Risk

Education

Media and

Advocacy

Development

www.mineaction.eg


http://www.mineaction.eg/


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The humanitarian demining activities carried-out to remove

landmines and UXOs from the vast contaminated areas in Egypt

are not on the same level of the problem.

very slow, labor intensive, costly, inefficient, extremely

dangerous and stressful process.



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TECHNOLOGY ENABLERS


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ERW Localization ERW Disposal

Humanitarian Demining

Reconnaissance Deactivation Neutralization

Close-in Detection

Mapping

Flails

Rollers

Plows

Kafon

Stand-off Detection

AND

...

AND OR

OR

TECHNOLOGY ENABLERS


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Close-in Detection Stand-off Detection

Minefield Reconnaissance

Hand-probing Techniques Biological Techniques Unmanned Systems Remote Sensing

Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs)

Manned Armored Vehicles

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (AUVs)

Dogs

Rats

Elephants

...

TECHNOLOGY ENABLERS


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TOWARDS A LANDMINE-FREE WORLD


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Minesweepers 2014 – Portugal Minesweepers 2013 - Egypt Minesweepers 2012 - Egypt

Minesweepers: Towards a Landmine-free World as the

first international outdoor robotic competition on

humanitarian demining [http://www.landminefree.org/].

Minesweepers 2015 - Chile Minesweepers 2016 - Egypt

MINESWEEPERS

http://www.landminefree.org/

http://www.landminefree.org/


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• Minesweepers Mission

Each participating team constructs a

teleoperated/autonomous

unmanned ground/aerial vehicle

that must be able to search for

underground and aboveground anti-

personnel landmines and UXOs.

MINESWEEPERS


26 MINESWEEPERS

Minesweepers Juniors

Minesweepers Academia

Minesweepers Industry

Multiple Minesweepers

ROS Minesweepers

[Detection + Mapping]

[Detection only]

[Detection + Identification + Mapping]

[Teleoperated Sweeper + Autonomous Supervisor]


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http://landminefree.org/

MINESWEEPERS


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• Technical Support

◊ Minesweepers Rules

◊ Buried Mine Detection

◊ UXO Detection using Machine Vision

◊ Perception and Navigation of Autonomous Vehicles

◊ Wireless Communication for Teleoperated/Autonomous

Vehicles

◊ Construction and Control of an Unmanned Quadrotor

Webinars

Course

◊ How to build a real robot

◊ UAV Design and Control

Social media

MINESWEEPERS


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http://landminefree.org/

MINESWEEPERS


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MINEPROBE PROJECT


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• MineProbe: A Distributed Mobile Sensor System for

Minefield Reconnaissance and Mapping in Egypt

http://www.mineprobe.org/

Funding Agency

Applicant

Partners Associate

Duration: 2015-2017

MINEPROBE PROJECT




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MINEPROBE PROJECT




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Autonomous Mode (AM) ModuleCurrent Cell Status

Robot Pose

Depth Map

Mission Planning Module Plan Execution

Re-Planning

Inner and surface status

Teleoperation Mode (TM) Module

Ground Station Commands

Telepresence Module

Robot Status Panels

Onboard Stereo-camera Views

Aerial Imaging Panel

Local Maps Panel

Global Minefield Map Panel

Inspection Platform Remote Control

Platform Motion Remote Control

Minefield Mapping Module

Map Merging Module

Local Mapping Module

Failure Detection-Diagnosis and Recovery Module

Plan Monitoring Drone

Camera

Onboard

Cameras

<update> <update>

<update>

<update>

Coordination Mode

MINEPROBE PROJECT


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Ahmed Abdel Hamid, Amr Nazih, Mohammed Ashraf, Alaa Khamis , "UGV Locomotion System for Rough Terrain", Second International Workshop on Recent

Advances in Robotics and Sensor Technology for Humanitarian Demining and Counter-IEDs (RST 2016).

• Articulated Suspension and Arm Design

MINEPROBE PROJECT


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Mohammed Ashraf and Alaa Khamis , "Design of Robot Wheels for Rough Terrain - A Multi-criteria Optimization Approach", Second International Workshop

on Recent Advances in Robotics and Sensor Technology for Humanitarian Demining and Counter-IEDs (RST 2016).

• Wheel Design

MINEPROBE PROJECT


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• Hybrid Localization

RTK GPS

Data Processing (Perception)Data Acquisition (Sensing)

Data Cleansing

IMU

RTK GPS Filtering

IMU Filtering

State Estimation

RTK GPS Feature Extraction

IMU Feature Extraction IMU Localization

RTK GPS LocalizationRTK GPS

Raw Data

IMU Raw

Data

Robot Pose

• To AM Module

• To Minefield Local

Mapping Module

• To Telepresence

Module

Information Fusion

Pose Fusion

RTK GPS Pose

IMU Pose

MINEPROBE PROJECT


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• Multimodal Detection System

MINEPROBE PROJECT

Data Processing (Perception)

Data Acquisition (Sensing)

Data Cleansing

Ground Penetrating Radar

EMI Preprocessing & Filtering

GPR Preprocessing & Filtering

State Estimation

EMI Feature Extraction

GPR Feature Extraction GPR State Estimation

EMI State Estimation

EM

I S

ign

al

GP

R s

can

Current Cell Status

• To Minefield Local

Mapping Module

• To AM Module

Information Fusion

EMI/GPR Fusion

EMI state

GPR state

EMI Detector

Metrics/

Sensor EMI GPR

Dual

sensor

Variance 0.11 0.04 0.0003

Probability of

detection (Pd) 0.5 1 1

Probability of false alarm (PFA)

0.8 0.3 0

Muhammad Aly and Mohammed Ashraf, Alaa Khamis, “GPR

and EMI Information Fusion Approach to Landmine

Detection”, 2nd International Workshop on Robotics and

Sensor Technology for Landmine (RST 2016).


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Thank you for your attention!

Questions?

Presentations & Public Speaking

Humanitarian Robotics: Minefield Reconnaissance and Mapping