It is a sad fact of contemporary life that much of the world has become a very dangerous place. Indeed, nowhere today is apparently safe from the recent upsurge in international terrorism and the potential risks posed to all of us by its attacks.
In a positive response to this situation a United Kingdom manufacturer is acknowledged to be leading the counterattack by developing a sophisticated remote-controlled device that can locate and neutralise any suspect package in an aircraft or similarly confined space.
The specialist company AB Precision (ABP) has created the device, aptly named Cyclops. It is a small, remotely operated vehicle especially for locating terrorist devices in buildings, buses, trains and the passenger and storage areas of aircraft.
In the specialised parlance of the trade such a device is known as a miniature remotely operated vehicle (MROV) and is controlled either by radio or fibre-optic cable from a briefcase-size base station. Cyclops is designed for improvised explosive device disposal (IEDD), conventional munitions disposal (CMD) and use in other high-risk hazardous environments.
The current model is the result of 12 years' development. Its versatility is unrivalled because its small size and manoeuvrability allow operation in urban areas and confined spaces such as aircraft, buses, ships and trains while its two-metre extending boom allows access to luggage racks and overhead lockers and to low-level areas such as under seats or vehicles.
It is able to negotiate obstacles, bulkheads and to climb stairs. By fitting wheel kits, Cyclops is converted into a vehicle capable of operation in semi-rural off-road situations including applications such as airfield explosive ordnance disposal (EOD).
It is now capable of climbing from the ground on to an aircraft unaided and is small enough to pass between the seats in the passenger lounges. It incorporates a special camera head that can be raised to a height of two metres on its extending arm and can pan through an angle of 185°.
Once Cyclops has located a suspected bomb, there are two standard methods available for neutralising it. The obvious one is termination or simply blowing it up. Although effective, it will often cause an enormous amount of collateral damage. This can be counter-productive inside an aircraft or a similarly expensive vehicle. Thus the preferred method is to fire a water cannon into the device and this alternative approach operation is called 'disruption'.
The Cyclops is equipped with a powerful cannon to achieve this. The high-pressure water jet interrupts the explosive chain by separating the component parts of the device.
Obviously a battery-powered vehicle as necessarily small as this initially presented the manufacturers with a number of considerable technical difficulties. In conjunction with Berkshire-based Maxon Motors, these have been solved through using two RE35 and one RE25 motors to power the main drive and grippers.
The design of these maximum performance motors is based on the use of rare-earth neodymium magnets. All three motors use gears, in this case planetary gear heads, with straight teeth and a hardened stainless-steel output shaft, enabling them to operate over a range of temperatures, ranging from -18 to 80°C.
"Selecting motors appropriate for the Cyclops was a significant technical challenge because we needed a lot of power," says Ian Bell, the Maxon sales engineer who worked on the project. "This is because it will have to climb steep stairs at 40° and still have enough power to go along and open doors."
The current Cyclops MK4D can also carry and deploy such devices as disrupters, small arms, manipulators, hand tools, chemical and explosive agent detectors, X-ray systems, and thermal imaging systems.
For more information contact Kevin Cross, AB Precision, 0944 1202 665000, [email protected], www.abprecision.co.uk
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