Anti Mine & IED Disruptor Drone

Based around our Harrier 7 platform, this project involved the development of a system to carry, aim and fire an anti mine and IED disruptor. The system includes a fully bespoke gimballed position control and stabilisation system for the disruptor, a sighting, zeroing and aiming system and target range finder, coupled with a highly secure communications system. The disruptor shown here is a Chemring GE70, an industrial tool normally seen on mine clearing tracked ground robots, which fires a 40mm cartridge containing 200g of wet clay at 300 m/s, with the aim of destroying the mine electronics before it can detonate. Fitting this to a drone allows excellent access to devices in almost all circumstances even those where it would be impossible or dangerous to approach on the ground, reducing clearing times and greatly reducing risk to those tasked with disarming the devices.

Firing the disruptor creates a huge shock to the system and managing this and the impact this has on both the stabilisation and aiming system, as well as the sensors used to actually fly the drone, was key to success. Although we are using the GE 70 in this case, the system could be adapted to carry almost any disruptor.