EOD operators or ammunition technical officers conduct some of the military’s most dangerous jobs, who has the daunting task of dismantling, defusing and disposing bombs and other explosive ordnance, often in the most hostile and challenging of environments. Making this job safer are bomb disposal robots, unmanned vehicles capable of disabling explosive devices without endangering human lives.
However, their mission will only grow as the United States faces an array of threats from countries and non-state actors around the globe, said Army Lt. Gen. Reynold Hoover, deputy commander of U.S. Northern Command. “These competitors, along with North Korea, Iran and terrorist organizations are developing weapons and tactics we haven’t even seen before,” he said. These adversaries often operate in the “gray zone,” where their aggressive and coercive efforts remain below the level of conventional armed conflict, he noted.
Several defence organisations around the world investing in newer unmanned EOD systems. For example, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) invested £55m in Harris Robotics’ T7 bomb disposal robots in 2017, which it states can disarm bombs 20 per cent faster than previous models. A new type of explosive ordnance disposal robot researched and developed by a Chinese company can also dismantle the simple and fixed explosives and prevent unwanted explosions during the removal process, chinanews.com reported.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a $429m contract for unmanned ground robots with EOD capabilities earlier in 2018.The Army envisions the CRS-I vehicles as being applicable for dismounted forces and having payloads for functions such as explosive ordnance disposal, plus detection of chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear agents.
The latest bomb disposal robots demonstrate the exceptional level of versatility, dexterity and diversity offered by new platforms to support EOD technicians in achieving their goals more safely and efficiently than ever. The bomb disposal robots will become increasingly adaptable to their environments in the future. There are prototypes being developed that are able to jump over walls and land on the other side. Robot Swarms are also being designed that operate together in teams, where one robot is tasked with sniffing out explosives and another with their disposal.
In 2017, US research institute SRI International unveiled it’s Taurus robot: a bomb disposal robot that allowed operators to control it using a virtual reality headset. This is just the latest in a long line of technology developments for bomb disposal units. In future AI can be used in missions such as explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), route clearance, obstacle breaching, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) reconnaissance—all considered extremely high-risk operations—in a manner that significantly limits troop exposure to these hazards
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