Deployment Of Robot Arms With A Leader-Follower Approach For Bomb Disposal

<div>Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have been developed over the years across many nations around the world. IEDs used by terrorist actions and in warfare cause devastating death, injuries and damage. To protect the public, many emergency responders have to risk their lives by performing extremely hazardous tasks such as interacting with suspected IEDs. To prevent the emergency response teams from being negatively impacted by IEDs, many different kinds of response robots have been deployed in many locations worldwide – allowing first responders a safe way to interact with these menaces from a distance. This thesis contributes to the understanding of using robot arms with a Leader–Follower (LF) approach to help humans with performing dexterous operations like those which are inevitably required for manipulating IEDs remotely. The LF approach allows operators to remotely manipulate a robot arm without putting operators’ lives in danger. By physically controlling one arm from a safe distance, operators can successfully copy its movements to a second arm. As a result, we argue, this approach can be helpful for minimizing operator risk when interacting with suspicious devices while at the same time facilitating more intuitive remote control.</div>

Deployment Of Robot Arms With A Leader-Follower Approach For Bomb Disposal

<div>Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have been developed over the years across many nations around the world. IEDs used by terrorist actions and in warfare cause devastating death, injuries and damage. To protect the public, many emergency responders have to risk their lives by performing extremely hazardous tasks such as interacting with suspected IEDs. To prevent the emergency response teams from being negatively impacted by IEDs, many different kinds of response robots have been deployed in many locations worldwide – allowing first responders a safe way to interact with these menaces from a distance. This thesis contributes to the understanding of using robot arms with a Leader–Follower (LF) approach to help humans with performing dexterous operations like those which are inevitably required for manipulating IEDs remotely. The LF approach allows operators to remotely manipulate a robot arm without putting operators’ lives in danger. By physically controlling one arm from a safe distance, operators can successfully copy its movements to a second arm. As a result, we argue, this approach can be helpful for minimizing operator risk when interacting with suspicious devices while at the same time facilitating more intuitive remote control.</div>

Lower Leg Injury Mechanism Investigation During an IED Blast Under a Vehicle Using an Anatomic Leg Model

Attacks with improvised explosive device (IED) constituted the main threat to, for example, Polish soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Improving safety during transport in an armored vehicle has become an important issue. The main purpose of the presented research is to investigate the mechanism of lower leg injuries during explosion under an armored vehicle. Using a numerical anatomic model of the lower leg, the analysis of the leg position was carried out. In all presented positions, the stress limit of 160 (MPa) was reached, which indicates bone damage. There is a difference in stress distribution in anatomic elements pointing to different injury mechanisms.

A Case Report of External Cardiac Pads Used for Internal Cardiac Defibrillation During Resuscitative Thoracotomy

ABSTRACT This is a case report regarding the use of non-conventional methods to perform internal cardiac defibrillation on a trauma patient in an austere environment. The patient was a polytrauma causality of an improvised explosive device who arrived to a far forward resuscitative surgical team during a recent armed conflict. After arrival, the patient lost pulses. An emergency resuscitative thoracotomy was performed, and the patient was noted to have ventricular fibrillation on direct cardiac visualization. In the absence of standard surgical defibrillation paddles, the team applied external defibrillator stickers directly to the patient’s myocardium to deliver an electrical shock. The procedure successfully led to the return of spontaneous circulation. This report highlights a novel approach to resuscitation in resource-limited environments by a military surgical team.

Blast mitigation using polymeric 3D printed auxetic re-entrant honeycomb structures: A preliminary study

Protection of critical infrastructure in an urban environment is a challenging task, specifically against the vehicle bourne improvised explosive device threat. To design infrastructure to withstand this evolving threat, novel solutions and advanced materials need to be developed. One such material of interest are auxetics. This study experimentally analysed the mitigation of blast response of auxetic re-entrant honeycomb structures, with geometries varying between −ve 30° and +ve 30° using additive manufacturing (3D printing) techniques and non-explosive loading via shock tube. Re-entrant auxetic structures (−ve 15°) exhibited repeatable blast mitigation of 23% and reduced the transmitted pressure and impulse of the blast wave. Further highlighting their potential application as a protective measure to enhance a structures blast survivability.

Military thoracic gunshot wounds: A systematic review

A systematic review of the literature was carried out using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method to investigate the frequency of military thoracic gunshot wounds (GSWs) and deaths in combat theatres since World War Two (WW2). An electronic database search of World of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, PubMed and Microsoft Academic was conducted using the keywords ‘combat, casualties, thorax, gunshot, and military’ to identify peer-reviewed journals and conference papers on the topic. Twenty-three sources relevant to this review were identified and covered multiple theatres of operation. While there is a downward trend in the frequency of thoracic GSWs and fatalities likely due to the improvement of body armour, the improvement in medical treatment and increased frequency of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the review shows that the advancement has not removed the likelihood of thoracic GSWs, which still accounted for approximately 15% of all thoracic injuries in the most recent combat theatres. The systematic review identifies that GSWs of the thorax continue to be a risk in military theatres and therefore, medical personnel should be aware of the frequency and severity of thoracic GSWs and should be prepared to treat these life-threatening injuries, as timely intervention is essential.

PROTECTION OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FROM EMERGING THREATS

Today's society is in a continuous transformation towards a digitalized society. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated worldwide the transition from the physical to the online environment of services provided by both public and private institutions. With a digitized society in our defense types of risks, threats and risks to critical infrastructures that support digital evolution. Thus, opponents turn their attention to new forms of asymmetric attacks to generate states of terror against states or individuals or groups of people. Thus, among the newest and most developed threats are those that use cyberterrorism, network-based warfare or attacks using technologies imported from the military such as drones carrying improvised explosive devices. Countermeasures and resilient systems must be prepared against them.

Design of a High-Power UWB Antenna Incorporating a Solid Dielectric for Electronic Warfare Applications

In this paper, a high-power ultrawideband antenna is presented for the purpose of remotely neutralizing improvised explosive devices. The developed antenna has a bandwidth between 230 MHz and 2 GHz, as well as a maximum realized gain of 18.7 dB. The antenna structure incorporates a solid dielectric (HDPE 1000) so that it can be powered, without risk of a possible breakdown voltage, by a Marx generator which delivers a bipolar pulse with a peak amplitude of +/−250 kV, a rise time of 170 ps, and a duration of 1 ns. The radiated electric field obtained in simulation is, respectively, 1 MV/m peak and 126 kV/m peak at a distance of 1 m and 10 m.

Design and Analysis of Vehicle Mine Blast Using AUTODYN

Anti-vehicular (AV) mines are capable of disabling a heavy vehicle, or completely destroying a lighter vehicle. The most common form of AV mine is the blast mine, which uses a large amount of explosive to directly damage the target. In a conventional military setting, landmines are used as a defensive force-multiplier and to restrict the movements of the opposing force. They are relatively cheap to purchase and easy to acquire, hence landmines are also potent weapons in the insurgents’ armamentarium. The stand-off nature of its design has allowed insurgents to cause significant injuries to security forces in current conflicts with little personal risk. As a result, AV mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have become the most common cause of death and injury to Coalition and local security forces operation. A number of different strategies are required to mitigate the blast effects of an explosion. Primary blast effects can be reduced by increasing the standoff distance between the seat of the explosion and the crew compartment. Enhancement of armour on the base of the vehicle, as well as improvements in personal protection can prevent penetration of fragments. Mitigating tertiary effects can be achieved by altering the vehicle geometry and structure, increasing vehicle mass, as well as developing new strategies to reduce the transfer of the impulse through the vehicle to the occupants. Protection from thermal injury can be provided by incorporating fire resistant materials into the vehicle and in personal clothing. The challenge for the vehicle designer is the incorporation of these protective measures within an operationally effective platform.