MicroAirships in Humanitarian Demining

MicroLTA Platforms have station keeping, low altitude, and endurance qualities beyond any other UAV technology.

Detection Notes:

Despite new detector technologies and the existence of nonmetalic mines, magnetometer based detection of mines is still the mainstay. Initial blimp based detection experiments focus on magnetometer use. The following tech note is from the demining listserv-

Because most mines have metallic casings or contain at least a few grams of metal (usually the firing pin and associated spring) the standard method of detecting mines either buried or hidden in overgrowth is a pulsed-induction eddy-current sensor that can unambiguously detect the presence of less than a gram of metal buried in non-metallic soils to a depth of 10-20 cm. The pulsed-electromagnetic induction (PEMI) detector applies a pulsed magnetic field (( ~ .5 msec) to the soil. The magnetic field propagates into the soil and diffuses into buried conducting materials. Eddy currents are induced in the conducting material which in turn produce an opposing magnetic field, (( ~ 200 msec) as the applied field collapses. This opposing field disturbs the time-varying magnetic field produced by the detector. Perturbations in the detector field indicate the presence of a metallic object buried in the soil and are signalled by an audible sound. In effect, such detectors can detect reliably most of the smallest antipersonnel mines buried close to the surface. Submitted by KOSTA TSIPIS

Lightly dragging a metal detector coil over the ground- a mockup drogue has shown low drag/snag in rough.(8-8-'98)

It would need to be adapted with a long sheilded cable to detector coil or dangled complete with a wireless link. Micro videocam might even be best placed at bottom of the pendulum mass with the metal detector. Detector system weight target- around a pound, or much less as possible. Having already made primitive metal detectors, I can build a cheap detector at a couple of grams, not counting long wires. Detonation may make sense if blimps as highly expendable if high dangling for safety proves somehow impractical (uncontrollable swinging, etc.). Dropping a tethered weight would be accurate enough, but the tether might be more for retry, not detonation recovery, as explosion might blow the weight far enough to yank blimp, tangle etc.

Early Detection- It may be that MicroLTA serves best in an initial detection/assesment role, skipping across wide areas with many obstacles, to be followed up by conventional resources.

Removal

Blimp based detonation is problematic- shedding weight (projectiles) requires venting lifting gas. If gun or smart bomb based, safe destruction at a distance is practical.

Mapping and tagging by air, then bringing in ground based robots, may work best.

"Minebomber"; rather than firing a projectile at the mine, a blimp could simply drop (as in release without force) a small explosive exploding on impact and hopefully trigger the mine. Projectile loads required are similar to greater than hand gun loads, enough mass to rule out the smallest blimps and a major constraint on blimps to about 30'.

A precision aimed freefall mass could trigger mines.

Potential for Misuse

While the potential of this invention for good outweighs its potential for evil, terrorist and wartime abuse of microblimp technology is possible and will be actively opposed by the developers. Countermeasures are under onsideration.

Perhaps what is needed is an international ban on the use of small aviation platforms as offensive weapons platforms. There may be ethical uses by native resistence or other lawful defense force using such means tocounter an invading military force or terrorists.

Future Directions

Smaller, cheaper, more capable.

Knowledge and tools have progressed greatly in ten years since powerful microelectronics first flew on microblimps.

LTA potentially superior scouting platform.

arrow of migration- as microelectronics shrink, computing power moves onto the microblimp. On the otherhand, wireless bandwidth also increases, lessening the need to put resources aboard. Matters settled of expediency over taste.

Ideal Countermeasure- Realtime automated surveilence of mine laying operations with GPS/GIS integration. Automated removal.

-as imaged by any technology can be powerfully interpreted by PC based machine vision software, such as the IMAQ library built on LabView, which runs on ORCA server.

Blimp's radar would work well for metal mines. A SQUID might be a feasible sensor for plastic mines.

Testing Micro LTA for Demining Support

Sand volley ball court as testing range- Close quarters, net as obstacle,rapid planting of targets. bury lanyards with dummy mines. Test dummy mines with real triggers that can be used for demo purpose or trigger data for various mines and we can kludge a scale or springtrap type gismo. Also, a schematic or cannibalizable metal detector of advanced sensitivity and features.

Personal mine danger warning systems that detect cleared land, warn about uncleared, and even detect new mines- smart shoes, tagged environment, GIS/GPS integration, mission matrix- type of mine, terrain, resources, etc.

Basic Teleoperation- a video
link and a radio control link. A data link is a rather obvious goal, but at the
crudest level of proff of concept, a metal detector meter could be placed in the
field of view of the camera, or its audio output could run over one of the video
audio channels.
general functionality of the flight platform,
with some mention of bomb squad/ anti terrorist type applications.

Microblimps can only carry "small" arms, but they have several military
advantages-

-They are extremely cheap and therefore disposable, potentially about $200 using
current components. So, like land mines, they can be launched in huge numbers
("airmines"). They trully could be a poor man's cruise missle.

-They can be very stealthy; whisper quiet and suitably designed, radar stealthy,
even, with a clear bag with antiglare coatings, visually stealthy. They would
probably be creatures of the night in military use.

-Modern electronics like GPS and video links allows them to perform complex valuable
military objectives like scouting, comm.relay, and small target seek and destroy.

-Blimps have station keeping, low altitude, and endurance qualities beyond any other
aviation platform. They have unique potential in niche applications.

-Modern explosives are very energetic. Ten pounds of plastique can do signifigant
military damage to many kinds of targets. Ten pounds of chemical agents can wipe
out a village. Ten pounds of Anthrax can wipe out a city.

They are not as easy to shoot as they seem. Bullets pass thru them, generally
missing any critiacal component, and gas bleeds out slowly, so an incoming blimp
could keep on coming. Foot soldiers would have a hard time judgeing scale and range,
for lack of reference. Using tracer munitions exposes them to easy reverse targeting,
itself a military accomplishment.

http://www.polycosmos.org/android/pa_links.htm

That may be the proper class for the mission. Current efforts are in the 20' class, seeking
general speed and agility at that level of cost and size.

Fleets of variable scales, motherships and shuttles, make sense in some mission
contexts.

Detection might be practical. Blimps could get really close and not trigger
conventional landmines.

A hybrid crawler could use a lifting gas bag to reduce apparent weight. Travois Concept

Land based machines may handle mines mapped
safely from the air.

inject small amounts of solulizing gas in ground to flush out chemical signal of mine material for sensor acquisition.