Agritechnique Engineering, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup entered the emergency response market with its development of a patent-pending unmanned ground engineering vehicle (UGEV) that can adapt to a number of emergency situations, including earthquakes, nuclear power plant accidents, terrorist attacks and tsunami’s.
Here’s a look at each of the four models:
1. Search & Rescue Engineering Vehicle: UGEV/SR
Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes ? natural disasters always catch us by surprise, no matter how many early-warning systems are in place. This makes it all the more important for rescue teams to get the picture of the situation at hand as fast as possible.
Because every minute counts when the task is saving lives, UGEV/SR robot-supported systems will become essential to streamlining and accelerating search and rescue operations.
Coordination between the unmanned ground robotics vehicles used in these operations and the people operating them is essential to ensure that the different tools are used in the right time and place, and adopt to the fast changing conditions, even if the physical surroundings change in the event of building collapses or aftershocks.
The UGEV/SR systems are simple to operate ? reliable teamwork between man and machine enable more lives to be saved in disaster sites. The UGEV/SR version is adapted for use in emergency rescue missions, such as in the wake of terrorist attacks, earthquakes, and other disasters, both natural and man-made.
2. Nuclear Power Plant Inspection Robotics Vehicle: UGEV/NPPIR
The UGEV/NPPIR is suited for dangerous industrial accident sites, such as in nuclear power plants. Indeed, the UGEV/NPPIR can be operated with equal dexterity either inside buildings, where it can efficiently breach obstacles, open doors, and ascend or descend stairs, or outdoors, where its rubber tracks undercarriage makes the UGEV/NPPIR a powerful, all-terrain vehicle.
Dozens of off-the-shelf, ready to use tools – such as hydraulic hammers, cutting discs, clamps for heavy lifting, and buckets to break through walls and doors and collect items – are compatible with the tool attachment system, conferring on the UGEV/NPPIR the functional flexibility that enables it to perform a wide variety of tasks.
These include the recovery of waste materials, solid samples collector, area marker, trenches digger, mounds builder, soil scraper and grader, concrete crusher, steel cutter, and valve closer, to name just a few of jobs the UGEV/NPPIR can perform Moreover, it can be equipped to operate in contaminated CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive) environments. All our versions are fitted with on-board, heavy tool attachment systems that support automatic remote tool interchangeability.
3. Humanitarian Demining Task Vehicle: UGEV/HDTV
Our small remote-controlled UGEV/HDTV with its heavy weight boom assembly and payload capacity up to 2000 kg, can carry , and automatically coupling/decoupling heavy sensory systems as well as equipment for neutralization of mines (flail with protective cover), tools for cutting vegetation, etc.
Another optional attachment for use in humanitarian demining is a ground penetrating radar sensor system designed to detect deep buried and surface-laid mines and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). The system is also equipped with a lane marking device to designate both a safe path for vehicle access to the site and to outline the locations of discovered threats. The system can clear patches in the front of the vehicle and on both its sides while moving forward on the path that it has already cleared.
4. Military and Homeland Security Vehicle: UGEV/MHLS
The UGEV/MHLS is a powerful, all-terrain vehicle, that is compatible with dozens of off-the-shelf tools, compatible with its automatic attachment system, allowing the UGEV/MHLS functionality and flexibility that enables it to perform a variety of tasks.
The UGEV/MHLS is ideally suited to the urban combat that today increasingly characterizes many zones of conflict. Such warfare compels fighting forces to equip themselves with effective breaching and maneuvering devices, including powerful, technologically advanced equipment that can penetrate buildings and other structures and then operate efficiently indoors, performing breaching, demolishing, sawing, and opening actions and handling explosives.
The UGEV/MHLS is outfitted with several tool attachments for maximum effectiveness in the field, where it adapts itself to the changing conditions in real-time. Furthermore, the UGEV/MHLS provides significant supports to the combat engineering unit, hauling the heavy equipment required for the logistic operation, thus enabling the soldiers, to remain light and mobile till the actually get to the target area. Another option of an attachment is a ground penetrating radar sensor system designed to detect deep buried and surface-laid mines and IED. The system also equipped with a lane marking operating sub system to designating both a safe path for following vehicles and for outlining the location of discovered threats.
Controlling the UGEVs
All four UGEV versions are fitted with on-board heavy tool attachment systems that support remote automatic tool interchangeability via a single button push on the remote control box. As a multi-task, unmanned engineering tool carrying machine, the UGEV can handle practically any engineering challenge. Its undercarriage is equipped with wide rubber tracks that provide the vehicle with a large surface contact area for low ground pressure and the stability needed to move rapidly (up to 20 km/h) and keep pace with ground forces.
The UGEV is equipped with five video cameras, including some with zoom functions operated from the control command box. The screen of the command control box displays all camera views, including the reverse movement camera in real-time. In addition, the UGEV also has a microphone that transmits audio to a speaker built in to the control box, allowing the operators to hear the UGEV working, which helps them operate the UGEV as if they are actually sitting inside it.
