ES2645453B1 - UNTRIPULATED LAND VEHICLE FOR DETECTION AND GEO-LOCATION OF ARTIFACTS LOCATED ON THE SURFACE OR BURIED - Google Patents

Abstract

Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts. # Land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts, such as mines or explosive remains, consisting of a set of elements or modules made of non-ferromagnetic materials, preferably plastic and / or rubber. The vehicle comprises a main frame structure (1) on which a rear box (2), a front (3) and a tread assembly (4) comprising wheels (8) and two treads (9) are coupled. . The rear box (2) supports a set of tilting arms (6) and a motor for unlocking, unpacking and where there are also remote sensing components, batteries, electronic control and communications equipment and different sensors; The front case (3) is equipped with scanning and detection sensors.

Description

UNTRIPULATED LAND VEHICLE FOR DETECTION AND GEO-LOCATION OF ARTIFACTS LOCATED ON THE SURFACE OR BURIED

Object of the invention

The present invention relates to a land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of artifacts (mines and explosive remains) located both on the ground surface and buried that have been left on the ground after the passage of military conflicts, restoring thus access and use to / from these areas.

State of the art

Various techniques, tools and methods are currently used for the location 10 and neutralization of mines and other artifacts, mainly:

- Normally tele-operated light vehicles, equipped with articulated arms or platforms that position the metal detection sensors and / or ground penetration radars in an advanced way with respect to the vehicle's direction of movement. fifteen

- Heavy vehicles derived from those used in construction or agriculture, partially modified with more robust iron / steel armor and with rotary and / or excavation tools that remove the ground by penetrating between several centimeters and several meters to make it appear or explode directly the artifacts twenty

- Manual systems that a human operator normally moves oscillatingly a few centimeters from the ground and that allow detecting artifacts by their amount of metal or density difference from the surrounding terrain thanks to the sensors specialized in the detection of metal by variation of magnetic field or in the detection of volumes of different density thanks to 25 ground penetration radars (GPR) that usually emit electromagnetic radiation in the microwave band (UHF / VHF). These sensors usually emit an audible sound by changing tone when they detect a possible target.

- Dogs, rats or other animals trained in the detection of artifacts 30 thanks to their smell.

- Lines of explosives detonated in a controlled manner that also cause the detonation of possible artifacts that are very close.

- Other more experimental systems include, among others, the use of bees, drones equipped with specialized cameras, non-motorized rolling systems that move due to wind or the inclination of the terrain.

Unlike the equipment or systems known so far, the present invention proposes a light vehicle constructed of non-ferromagnetic material with autonomous and tele-operated navigation capability that has important advantages derived from its specific technical characteristics as indicated in the following section.

 5

Description of the invention

This invention presents an unmanned land mobile electric vehicle designed and built entirely (with the exception of electronic equipment) based on non-ferromagnetic materials such as plastic and rubber, which allows the use of on-board sensors very sensitive to metals without the need for additional structures 10, articulated or not, that move said sensors away from the vehicle frame. In this way, the construction of a portable vehicle weighing less than 25Kg is also achieved, equipped with control electronics and specialized sensors, which enable it to accurately explore large areas in a tele-operated, semi-autonomous and / or pre-loaded way. of a mission configuration from a ground station 15, completely autonomously.

Since the vehicle is equipped with sensor equipment specialized in the precise detection of metal (metal detectors) and volumes due to density change (ground penetration radar), the initial use for which this vehicle is intended is the exploration of terrain and geolocation with centimeter accuracy of antipersonnel mines, 20 anti-tank, UXOs (abbreviations for non-explosive devices), IEDs (abbreviations for “improvised explosives”) and other artifacts.

This constructive design, the materials used and the advanced sensor and motor capabilities incorporated, give this vehicle its novel and unique character in the market. 25

The vehicle object of the present invention is composed of the following structural elements or modules, all made of non-ferromagnetic material, preferably plastic and / or rubber:

- Main frame structure that allows the coupling of a rear case, a front box, and the structures of a rear and front wheels, 30 in addition to housing and supporting the motors that act on the rear wheels through a flexible coupling system from motor shaft to wheels.

o Cuatro ruedas de diseño propietario montadas sobre estructura de bastidor mediante machi-hembrado de canales-guías perimetrales. 35

o Dos bandas de rodadura de caucho, preferiblemente con doble tren de dientes en pista interior y serie de aletas transversales en pista exterior.

- Tread set consisting of:

o Four proprietary design wheels mounted on frame structure by means of machi-female of perimeter channels-guides. 35

o Two rubber treads, preferably with double train of teeth in inner race and series of transverse fins in outer race.

- Rear box that supports a set of arms / motor for unlocking and unpacking the vehicle. The vehicle can tip over at a given time, being supported on its upper surface after losing its position of natural verticality due to a sharp level change in the terrain or as an unwanted result of a maneuver over an obstacle. The aforementioned arms act by folding on the spine (upper part) of the vehicle and redeploying to rotate the vehicle, causing it to roll over, so that the vehicle is again supported on the treads and the arms remain on the part top of it. On the other hand, when the treads are separated from the ground due normally to some material that rests on the lower central part of the frame structure between said belts, the transmission of movement between the treads and the ground is prevented , what we call breaded of it. The arms turned up to 235º allow to recover the support of the treads on the ground and thus continue with the movement maneuvers in the trajectories of the vehicle. We call this maneuver unpacked. twenty

The back box also supports batteries to various control electronics equipment, power equipment, sensors, monitoring and signaling systems, remote sensing components (cameras, proximity detectors, ...), lighting and communications systems.

- Front box or “payload” equipped with metal detection sensors, 25 ground penetration radar, inductive, sonic or capacitive proximity sensors or actuators for collecting and handling artifacts of the type of articulated elements with several axes moved by stepper motors step by step and its electronics.

The length of the main frame structure with the front and rear box attached 30 (and the arms resting on the top of the vehicle, that is, not deployed) is shorter than the length of the tread assembly, which makes the vehicle compact and the sensors that the vehicle can include are not in advance with respect to the direction of movement, in addition to allowing a balanced distribution of the pressure of the vehicle on the ground. 35

Preferably, the vehicle of the present invention integrates the following systems for the control and handling thereof, all of which are located in the rear case:

- electronic data processing systems of on-board sensors,

- Autonomous navigation control system on the ground with obstacle detection and evasion capability through route correction, 5

- inertial multi-axial acceleration control and orientation system,

- speed control systems for motor speed and position,

- GPS positioning systems RTK (acronym for ‘Real Time Kinematic”) in real-time centimeter accuracy,

- redundant two-way telemetry and control 10 communications systems,

- vision system and radio image transmission.

Unlike other land vehicles of similar dimensions, which are usually manufactured with metallic structural elements and also metal couplings, this vehicle has been made entirely in technical plastics and / or rubber, which allows two fundamental characteristics to be reached for the use to which It is intended and that is a novelty about the existing systems today:

- Very low weight, which together with the balanced distribution of pressure per centimeter on surface made by the rubber band of the tread set allows you to step on the ground with less than 100 gr / cm2 and not activate 20 devices as pressure sensitive as many types of antipersonnel mines.

- The use of exclusively non-ferromagnetic materials throughout the front part allows to accommodate, among others, specialized sensors in the detection of metal inside the front box or 'payload' and inside the front wheels, minimizing electromagnetic interference and 25 maximizing the detection capacity of the sensors.

The invention has a clear innovation in the following characteristics:

- The materials used, avoiding the electro-mechanical and electronic components, are entirely non-ferromagnetic. For this, a design of the chassis (main frame structure) and of coupled boxes 30 has been carried out, thinking about the use and coupling of plastic materials and elastomers.

o El paso del vehículo por encima de minas anti-persona y otros 35 artefactos enterrados sin provocar su explosión, debido a su extremada ligereza y a la utilización de un sistema de tracción/rodadura que reparte muy bien las presiones en el suelo.

o El alojamiento de los sensores especializados en la detección de artefactos en la caja delantera del vehículo (payload) sin necesidad de articulaciones o plataformas adelantadas que aseguren que el vehículo 5 no pisa la mina y eviten las interferencias de materiales ferromagnéticos.

o La detección mediante detector de metal y radar de penetración en tierra, así como la geo-localización centimétrica, de artefactos enterrados. 10

o La detección frontal mediante detector de metal y geo-localización con precisión centimétrica de las minas con espoleta (activada por presión o inclinación) sobre la superficie.

o La navegación de forma autónoma por un área delimitada de terreno (work-area). La configuración de los parámetros de funcionamiento en 15 modo autónomo (patrón de navegación, velocidad de escaneado, dirección principal, criterios de actuación, comunicación, calibración de sensores, etc.) se realiza desde una estación geo-informacional terrestre con la que se comunica de forma inalámbrica por banda de radio UHF. 20

o El control opcional de la navegación de forma tele-operada desde un mando con comunicación por banda de radio UHF.

- The use of these materials and the on-board intelligent navigation / control system allows:

o The passage of the vehicle over anti-personnel mines and other 35 buried artifacts without causing its explosion, due to its extreme lightness and the use of a traction / rolling system that distributes the ground pressures very well.

o The accommodation of the sensors specialized in the detection of artifacts in the front box of the vehicle (payload) without the need for articulations or advanced platforms that ensure that the vehicle 5 does not step on the mine and avoid the interference of ferromagnetic materials.

o Detection by metal detector and ground penetration radar, as well as the centimeter geo-location, of buried artifacts. 10

o The frontal detection by means of metal detector and geo-location with centimeter precision of the mines with fuze (activated by pressure or inclination) on the surface.

o Navigation autonomously through a defined area of land (work-area). The configuration of the operating parameters in autonomous mode (navigation pattern, scanning speed, main address, performance criteria, communication, sensor calibration, etc.) is done from a terrestrial geo-informational station with which it communicates wirelessly by UHF radio band. twenty

o Optional navigation control tele-operated from a remote control with UHF radio band communication.

- The design of an unlocking / unpacking system based on two arms joined by transverse beam and tilting on the axis formed by the motor support structure and the shaft coupling of the motor itself, 25 from the folded position against the wall vehicle top up to approximately 235º.

- The design of a tread set, consisting of two rubber bands and four wheels, entirely constructed with technical plastic that are coupled on a chassis structure by means of a machi-female system, without 30 ferromagnetic elements.

Description of the figures

In order to help with a better understanding of the present invention, the following figures are included for illustrative and non-limiting purposes:

Figure 1: represents a view of the vehicle of the present invention in its resting position, with folded arms.

Figure 2: represents a view of the vehicle in its position ready for a mission and / or executing movements. When the vehicle is moving, the arms are raised. 5

Figure 3: represents a side view of the vehicle with its arms rotated approximately 235 ° with respect to its folded position against the upper wall of the vehicle.

Figure 4: It represents a modular view of the vehicle with the detachable modules separated to better appreciate the different parts, their volumes, their forms of assembly in the assembly and their functional specializations.

Detailed description of the invention

The land vehicle of the present invention is described in detail below based on the figures presented. As can be seen in figures 1, 2, 3 and 15 4, the vehicle is formed by a main frame structure (1) that allows the coupling of a rear box (2), a front box (3), and a detachable tread assembly (4) that includes four wheels (8) and two treads (9); in addition, the frame structure (1) houses and supports the motors (not visible in the figure since they are inside the frame structure) that act on the rear wheels 20 through a flexible coupling system of the motor shaft Wheel adapted.

The main frame structure (1), the rear box (2), the front box (3) and the rolling assembly (4) are made of non-ferromagnetic materials.

The rear box (2) supports a set of tilting arms (6) and engine for unlocking and unpacking the vehicle. In addition, the rear case (2) houses the remote sensing components such as vision cameras and proximity detectors, lighting and communications systems, a GPS system, batteries, control and power electronics equipment, to temperature / humidity sensors, and to a monitoring and signaling system. The signaling can be both acoustic through the use of a horn, as well as light through a LED pilot.

The arms (6) are joined by a transverse beam (5) and swing on the axis formed by the motor support structure and the axis coupling of the motor itself, from the folded position against the upper vehicle wall up to approximately 35 235º (see figure 3).

The front case (3) is equipped with a metal detection sensor and a ground penetration radar. Optionally it can comprise actuators (of the type of articulated elements) of collection and manipulation of devices with several axes moved by stepper motors.

The tread assembly (4) is formed by four wheels (8) mounted on the frame structure (1) by means of machi-females of perimetral guide channels, in addition to two rubber treads (9) with double train teeth (10) on the inner track and series of transverse fins on the outer track (11), mounted on each pair of side wheels of the vehicle respectively.

In figure 2, the vehicle is in its position ready for a mission 10 and / or executing movements. When the vehicle is in motion, it carries the arms (6) in raised position.

In figure 3 a view of the vehicle is shown in its position of execution of unpacking maneuver. This occurs when the treads (9) are separated from the ground due normally to some material that rests on the lower central part of the frame structure (1) between said belts. The arms (6) turned up to 235º allow to recover the support of the treads on the ground and thus continue with the movement maneuvers in the trajectories of the vehicle.

The advanced capabilities of the built-in sensors, the lightness of the whole set (less than 25Kg including batteries), its constructive robustness minimizing 20 mounting elements and maximizing coupling areas, make this vehicle an extremely powerful tool especially for performing operations of locating artifacts in demining tasks in a robust, effective and safe way, because:

- Minimizes energy consumption by being a light vehicle of less than 25Kg. 25

- Detects buried or surface artifacts without exploding them by carrying the on-board detectors inside the vehicle's front box, installed in such a way that they allow the detection of the entire vehicle width both vertically (in depth) and frontally and distribute the surface pressure getting a footprint below 100gr / cm2. 30

- Processes sensor data without interference due to the influence of metals on the construction structure.

- It incorporates GPS RTK receiver device (acronym for 'Real Time Kinematic') with signal reception of several satellite constellations (GPS, Glonass, ...) over several lines (L1 / L2), and radio in the frequency band 35 means for real-time communications with differential base station, which allows to obtain the position of the vehicle and the geo-location of the detected artifacts, with centimeter accuracy, less than 2cm error, and with the system in motion.

- It incorporates several radio communication systems for transmission / reception of detection telemetry and other on-board sensors 5 (temperature / humidity sensors, inertial unit, proximity detectors, ...).

- It incorporates a video camera and radios for the transmission of the video signal to other systems, in the intermediate hollow interior areas and the header of one or both upper arms. 10

- Allows the work in the field with several units that are relieved between cycles of charge and discharge of batteries,

- Allows radio communication of geo-location data, with centimeter accuracy, of artifacts, with geo-informational stations and other devices through secure and robust communications protocol and using standard encryption algorithms and integrity algorithms CRC data

- The rotation of the arms / motor assembly incorporated into the rear case allows the vehicle to be unpacked when it is suspended from its lower ventral area so that the treads do not touch the ground. This action of unpacking is possible thanks to the rotation of up to 235º of the arms on its motor axis.

Claims (17)

Claims 1. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts characterized by comprising the following elements: - a main frame structure (1), 5 - a rear box (2) that supports a set of tilting arms (6) and a motor for unlocking and unpacking the vehicle, as well as a control electronics equipment and a communications system, - a front box (3) equipped with scanning and detection sensors and - a detachable tread assembly (4) comprising wheels, two rear 10 and two front, and two treads and where the rear box (2), the front (3) and the rolling assembly (4) are coupled to the main frame structure (1), which also houses the motors that act on the rear wheels of the rolling assembly ( 4), and where the main frame structure (1), the rear box (2), the front box (3) and the rolling assembly (4) are made of non-ferromagnetic materials 2. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts, according to claim 1, characterized in that the rear box (2) houses the following elements: remote sensing components, 20 lighting systems, system GPS, batteries, temperature / humidity sensors, and monitoring and signaling system. 3. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts, according to claim 1, characterized in that the non-ferromagnetic material that forms the elements of the vehicle is plastic and / or rubber. 4. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts, according to claim 1, characterized in that 30 has a weight of less than 25 kg. 5. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts, according to claim 1, characterized in that the front box (3) includes a metal detection sensor and a ground penetration radar. 6. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts, according to claim 1, characterized in that the front box (3) includes actuators for collecting and handling artifacts, said actuators being articulated arm type with several axes moved by 5 stepper motors. 7. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts, according to claim 1, characterized in that the treads (9) are made of rubber, and have a double train of teeth (10) in 10 inner track and series of transverse fins in outer track (11). 8. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts, according to claim 2, characterized in that the 15 remote sensing elements are vision cameras and proximity detectors. 9. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts, according to claim 1, characterized in that the 20 arms (6) are joined by a transverse beam and are configured to swing from the folding position against the upper wall of the vehicle up to approximately 235º. 10. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of 25 surface or buried artifacts, according to claim 1 characterized in that the length of the main frame structure (1) with the front (3) and rear (2) box coupled It is less than the length of the rolling assembly (4). 11. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of 30 surface or buried artifacts according to claim 1 which also integrates electronic data processing systems of the on-board sensors into the back box (2). 12. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of 35 surface or buried artifacts according to claim 1 which also integrates in the back box (2) an autonomous navigation control system on the ground with detection and evasion capability of obstacles through correction of routes. 13. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts according to claim 1 which also integrates in the rear case (2) an inertial multi-axial acceleration and orientation control system. 14. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts according to claim 1 which also integrates in the rear box (2) speed control systems and motor position. 15. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts according to claim 1 which also integrates in the rear case (2) real-time RTK GPS positioning systems of centimeter precision. 16. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts according to claim 1 which also integrates redundant two-way telemetry and control communications communications systems in the back box (2). 17. Unmanned land vehicle for the detection and geo-location of surface or buried artifacts according to claim 1 which also integrates a vision and radio image transmission system in the rear case (2).