According to UNICEF, more than 110 million active land mines are buried in the soil of various nations around the world. Various organizations have been working on searching and removing these mines, which takes a lot of time, effort and money. There are two ways to disarm a land mine: the first one is manually digging for them, trying to avoid detonating them; the other is using heavy machinery to dig for them. The Digger DTR D-3 is the robotic vehicle that does that.
The Digger DTR D-3 is the newest creation of Digger DTR, a Swiss non-profit organization that makes vehicles designed for mine-clearing. It is a remote controlled vehicle that uses flail hammers to pound the ground as it goes. Each hammer weighs 10 pounds and they connected to a bar that spins them wildly, digging 8 inches into the ground as they strike.
The tank’s heavy armor protects it from explosions and any damage to its chains can be easily repaired.
According to its official website, “The DIGGER D-3 can be used in various applications such as land preparation, vegetation clearance, area reduction and mine clearance. Like its predecessors, it is completely shielded, easy to maintain and equipped with hydraulic and cooling oversized systems to withstand the more difficult operating conditions. Actually, the use of simple technology allows the D-3 to be repaired and maintained easily on the field.”
It has seen action in Sudan, Chad, Senegal and other areas where minefields are common. You can watch the Digger DTR D-3 in action here.
This makes the one from last nights Top Gear look tame 🙂
via: Technabob
Readers can obtain additional information from a recent podcast interview with Digger DTR Director Frederic Guerne. For example, use of the Digger robotic de-miner does not result in 100% clearance. Achievement of 100% clearance appears to require a second pass by manual de-miners. A link to the Frederic Guerne interview resides on the mindsclearinglandmines WordPress blog.