EOD robots take danger out of EOD equation

  • Published
  • By Noel Getlin
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Seemingly half man and half machine, Senior Airman Brandon Harrell manipulates the arms of a robot by using his own. 

Like a scene from a sci-fi movie, Airman Harrell, 96th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight explosive ordnance disposal technician, sits in the seat in a command and control trailer, surrounded by monitors and a metal exoskeleton to control robotic double articulated arms. 

The arms are an attachment to an EOD robot, the All Purpose Remote Transport System, designed specifically to assist the flight's mission. 

"The Eglin robotics section was developed in conjunction with the 46th Test Wing specifically for recovering items," said Staff Sgt. Todd Kuikka, 96th CES EOD NCOIC of robotics. "While projects are being developed, we offer them the ability to recover items once they have been launched or dropped after a test." 

Because of the flight's unique mission, the flight has tapped into their creative juices to modify current robotic platforms to fit their needs. 

The U.S. military uses four small robotic platforms; the HD1, F6A, the Talon, and the Packbot. All of these robots have a single articulated arm and at least one camera. On base, the flight uses these robots, such as the Talon, as an extra set of eyes or to turn on their transport robots, such as the lumbering John Deere excavator, the band saw and the All Purpose Remote Transportation System, known as the ARTS platform. 

The remote-controlled excavator can dig 30 feet into the ground to retrieve items. The band saw is used to separate the fuze from the explosives so the fuze can be returned for further testing. 

But the ARTS platform is the workhorse of the flight. The ARTS was developed by the Air Force as an airfield clearance tool. The robot looks like a backhoe with a digging bucket and comes with other attachments, such as a fork lift, a blade to clear submunitions from airfields in hostile regions, and a flail, which is uses chains to set off explosives. 

"We don't have to deal with those things here," Sergeant Kuikka said. "So we took a platform that already existed and made modifications to it so we can use it to recover items safely by taking the person out of the equation." 

What they came up with was double-articulated arms that attach to the ARTS platform. Airmen operate the robot and attached arms in a common trailer located in a safe location, which can be up to a half mile away. Inside, one Airman operates the ARTS robot by remote and another sits in the chair to work the articulated arms attachment.
 
"We use the ARTS to access the bomb, find it if it's dug into the ground or stuck in the wall, and to pull it out," said Senior Airman Anthony DeMarino, EOD robotics journeyman. "And then we turn around and use the arms on the ARTS to take the retaining ring (that holds the fuze in) out of the bomb." 

The grippers, controlled by the operator's hands, can produce more than 200 pounds of pressure just at the tip. 

"We can actually screw fuzes right out of projectiles," said Sergeant Kuikka. "And the arms have a unique feature called force feedback, so you can actually feel the pressure and all of your PSIs (pressure per square inch) that you are applying." 

But sometimes, small tools are also needed. So the flight had the fabrication shop create a handle for tools so that it could be placed in the grippers. 

In addition to larger bombs, the robotics team also works with testing on submunitions, such as the BLU 108. The air-to-ground submunition is dropped from an aircraft "and it opens up like a clam and it has four warheads that are specific for antipersonnel or anti-vehicle," Airman DeMarino said. "They come out and look for a target (using infrared) and once it finds its target it will detonate." 

"With the arms, we have the capability to physically take this whole thing apart," he said, holding up the submunition with four warheads. "There are two rocket motors that we can physically take apart and we can also take apart each single component. Once we get the projectile off the bomb, we can then grab and take the fuzing system off so now you just have a bunch of explosives, your electronics and your fuzing. As long as they're separate, there's no threat." 

As the EOD flight's mission continues to evolve, they will continue to modify robots and create tools to support the test directive mission. Because of the flight's ingenuity, their robots function like no others. 

"In robotics, the other services don't have anything that compares to us in (types) and capabilities," said Master Sgt. Noel Murphy, 96th CES EOD flight superintendent.