Mine Detonating Sphere-Bot

Abstract

The inspiration for this project came from the armadillo. This creature can curl itself into a ball, protecting its vulnerable parts with plates made of bone acting as armor. While the armadillo moves using its legs, this robot always remains in a spherical shape, and moves using wheels inside a sphere. It is theorized a robot of this design could be used in demining. The sphere rolls over a mine, detonates it, then survives the impact and can move on to detonate further mines. The robot makes use of soft materials rather than hard plates in order to survive impacts. This paper describes the design of the robot including consideration of different materials, different wheel shapes and spherical casing design. Simulations and compression testing were used to find the optimal designs. In addition, a hill climb test determines the robot’s ability to traverse sloped environments. Finally, a drop test shows its ability to survive impacts.