The six-legged shoes protect the
wearer by lifting up a leg if it is
over a mine so that the device
is not triggered
Posted on 04/29/2006 10:25:53 PM PDT by LibWhacker
The six-legged shoes protect the
wearer by lifting up a leg if it is
over a mine so that the device
is not triggered
Device promises to save thousands of lives every year
Scientists have developed a robotic shoe that will allow people to walk through minefields unharmed. Landmine clearance agencies are showing interest in the device, the inventors say.
Landmines kill or wound tens of thousands every year, the majority of them non-combatants, according to mine research organisations.
"We presented and exhibited a fully functional prototype at the Asian Defence Technology 2006 Exhibition in February with good responses," the shoe's co-inventor, Associate Professor Konstantin Fuss of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, told vnunet.com.
"Several companies were interested in the shoe, including a mine clearing agency in Australia, and the Homeland Security department in The Netherlands."
People wearing the robotic shoe would be able to step directly onto an anti-personnel mine, an action which would normally result in the loss of a limb or worse.
The six-legged shoes protect the wearer by lifting up a leg if it is over a mine so that the device is not triggered. The other five legs continue to support the wearer's weight.
Each of the shoe's six legs has a metal detector in its base. The detectors trigger solenoids which unlock the leg as soon as it is over a mine, allowing it to lift up freely when it touches the ground and put no pressure on the mine.
The leg is connected to the shoe with a hinge which locks again as soon as it is clear of the mine.
"The target groups for the shoe are mainly mine clearers involved in humanitarian clearance, military personnel in charge of peace-keeping initiatives and special command operations," the inventors said.
Testing and discussions with potential users of the mine shoe are continuing, according to Professor Fuss.
"We have been concentrating more on field tests, movement velocity and publication of design and results recently," he said. "We are intending to submit the description of the mine shoe and the testing results to the Journal of Mine Action this week."
The inventors filed a US patent application for the device last year.
Although the idea of a shoe designed to walk among unexploded mines might seem surprising at first, a variety of mine shoe already exists.
They are designed for mine-clearance experts or medical rescue personnel who need to work in or near uncleared minefields.
Although these cannot do anything to stop mines detonating, they do protect the feet and lower leg, reducing the risk of workers being permanently maimed by smaller anti-personnel mines.
Most anti-personnel mines are deliberately designed with small amounts of explosive that disable rather than kill by blowing off part of the victim's foot, for example.
This is because combatants must then devote considerable time and resources to evacuating and treating seriously wounded soldiers.
However, because minefields can remain dangerous for decades after conflicts cease, the victims are often innocent civilians. Landmine statistics show that 10,000 to 20,000 people are people killed or wounded by landmines every year.
Actually, minefields appear to still be lethal almost a century after they were laid.
WW1 mines are *still* killing people in Europe.
You volunteering to try these things out?
ping
How many of the mines currently in the ground are non-metallic, and invisible to these six-legged wonders?
The obvious flaw in the slaw is that this was developed by SCIENTISTS who have no training in the application of technology. To have a chance at applying technology in a (hopefully) practical manner, it requires an engineer. This is NOT any sort of practical application of any sort of method that could remotely be called technology by anyone living in the 21st century.
How about a tightly focused repeating EMP discharge that would smoke ALL electrical circuits wired smaller than ten gauge for a two hundred yard radius around a company of soldiers? Have we called up so many 50 year olds from the NG with pacemakers for combat duty that this is not feasible, or is it that important to maintain the RFID chips in body armor so the DoD can send bills to the familites of dead/wounded soldiers?
Before people call for a ZOT, I want it made clear that I feel there has been ten times too much "hearts and minds" BS in Iraq versus one tenth as much "let God sort 'em out" as should have been used.
How about it? Donno about scientists, but I think most engineers agree to one over r-squared. 1/r^2. It's pretty clear. You have a way to beat physics?
And just how do you plan to generate an EMP? Implode a superconducting magnetic dipole? Just curious.
Not to mention that many mines are simple mechanical devices without electrical circuits.
How about a tightly focused repeating EMP discharge that would smoke ALL electrical circuits wired smaller than ten gauge for a two hundred yard radius around a company of soldiers?
I've got one of those, but I don't talk about it in public.
Well, here is one way to do it.
http://www.amazing1.com/emp.htm
Many mines are purely mechanical, but I was thinking more about the remote detonated types and IEDs.
The best thing for the purely mechanical types is still the flail being pushed by a tank.
Were you expecting anything different?
Can I order them at Sharper Image?
Why not get a homeboy with his suped up Hyundai to roll down the street with the bass turned up. If he can make the street shake he should make the mines shake till they pop.
Dark Wing has some hiking boots with huge springs in the heels.
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