2021 2nd International Conference on Robotics,Electrical and Signal Processing Techniques (ICREST)
Implementation of Cost Effective Bomb Defusing
2021 2nd International Conference on Robotics, Electrical and Signal Processing Techniques (ICREST) | 978-0-7381-3042-2/20/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICREST51555.2021.9331203
Robot with Live Streaming Dual Camera Interface
Anjir Ahmed Chowdhury
dept. o f Computer Engineering. dept. of Electrical and Electronics
American International University -
Bangladesh American International University -
Dhaka, Bangladesh
anzria431@gmail.com Dhaka, Bangladesh
akterhamiddavid@gmail. com
Abstract— Robot automation technology is increasing day by day
to adapt to the world’s demand fo r controlling disasters, rescuing
operations, and minimizing human risk. To perform these tasks a
user-friendly robot is required which can be controlled precisely
from a remote area. The described project focuses on the design and
implementation o f a remotely controlled bomb disposal robot with
locally available hardware resources to minimize cost. The
implemented robot features a robotic arm with 4 degrees o f freedom
which can pick and carry any sophisticated object (up to 5kg) very
precisely and smoothly. The body and the arm o f the robot were
custom designed and built with Aluminum alloy. To maximize the
capability, the robot was equipped with Gas, fire, and obstacle
detection sensors. In the chassis, it can collect and carry dismantled
bomb parts (up to 10kg) as evidence. The mechanical design o f the
robot was validated with solid works software. Proteus was used fo r
PCB and schematic design. In the control system Raspberry p i was
used as a processor and fo r sensing and communication Arduino
mega was introduced. The robot can be controlled via the internet.
An additional python script has been used to control the robot
through a web server.
Keywords—Robotics, Mechanical Arm, Solid works, proteus.
I. In t r o d u c t io n
Following world war II, the demand for robotics technology
is growing very rapidly in America [1]. In the modern era in
Bangladesh, so many industries and factories are in touch with
automation using the same robotics technology even if it is late
[2]. In the very beginning, the common understanding was to
apply robotic technology in the industries whereas many certain
scopes for this technology were present in our military or bomb­
defusing unit. It helps to minimize the human risk for such
work. There are some projects [3][4][5] focusing on
merging the traditional ideas of robotics and applying them in
different fields by developing environmental adaptability
features in the design. Robot technology is growing faster and
faster and humans are becoming more dependent on this
technology day by day. Through the development of various
fields of robotics, life-threatening tasks like disposing of
bombs are also considered in the research field.
There is a prototype [6] that can search and rescue victims in
various types of hazardous areas. The mechanical structure of
the robot is designed in such a way that the robot can perform its
action in a smaller place where it’s difficult for a human to
enter. The main advantage of the prototype is the mechanical
structure of the robot which is a tank-shaped model. In the
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Md. Akter Hamid Md. Nahian Al Subri Ivan
dept. of Applied Physics.
Engineering. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hung Hom, Hong Kong
Bangladesh nahian. ivan@gmail. com
research, they mentioned the live view system as their
disadvantage. The prototype [7] has some diverse features than
the robot mentioned earlier. It was designed to disarm the bomb
with the minor involvement of humans and collect the evidence
of the material of the bomb. The performance of the robot is
promising when it comes to signal transmission and reception,
twisting over a wide range of angles or weight lifting areas.
Despite these advantages, the robot fails to impress the
requirement of PWM (Pulse width modulation) resolution. As a
result, the servo motor did not run very smoothly. In [8] a robot
with the ability of environmental adaptability was proposed and
designed on a low budget. The robot was equipped with a
mechanical arm and drill but it was not built in such a way that
can withstand the real environment.
In the design [9] a multipurpose service robot was introduced
which can be controlled remotely. Raspberry pi was used as the
central control processor and for grabbing any object 6 DOF
(depth of field) robotic arms were used which can be controlled
remotely using a radio frequency transmitter. The robot was
equipped with Gas and Ultrasonic sensors and 3 axes digital
compass to bring out any scientific task. The survey [10] is based
on the development of the robotic arm and recent technical
research that has been done in this field. The research is also
based on the commercially available robotics arms. The design
[11] describes the remote sensing and the detection process
using a depth-sensing display. This function is included in a
bomb disposal robot that is also featured with grasping any
object using a robotic arm. The display of this robot is designed
to fit the size of this type of minimax robot but the display
functionality is expected to be useful for any robot grasper used
in conjunction with a 3D sensor. The exceptional feature of this
robot is to give the operator a depth reading where most of the
bomb disposal robots cannot. In the design [12] a 4 wheel
independent drive rover was introduced which has an individual
suspension system to cope with any adverse condition like in the
Martian surface.
The bomb disposal robot mention in this paper has some
extra enhancements which make it more robust. In Ahalya
Ravendran et.al robot [8] the arm can take only 2 kg whereas
the robotic arm mentioned in this paper can take 5kg and the
robot itself can carry up to 10 kg in the chassis. The robot has
an aluminum body instead of an acrylic body which makes it
robust in a hazardous environment. The research [14] claimed
a robot being built with a low budget, showing the total cost of
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1, 69,380 BDT ($2000) whereas the robot mentioned in this

paper was made with locally available hardware with the total
cost of 36,960 BDT ($436.25). One more noticeable
improvement of the proposed robot is the use of two cameras
instead of only one camera [6] [8] [14] for live streaming as
well as for covering more areas of the scene and gathering
information. The advantage of using two cameras is not only
limited to covering more areas but also makes the robot more
reliable in providing support in a hazardous situation as if one
camera gets damaged, the other one can be used as a backup.

II. D e s i g n M e t h o d o l o g y

In this paper, a four-wheel-drive robot is designed and

developed that can be controlled remotely. It uses four
individual wiper motors that have enough torque to climb a
staircase or any other bigger obstacle. Before implementing the
robot solid works have been used to simulate the design for Fig. 2. Simulated result o f center of gravity.
better visibility on stability and accuracy. The arm was also B. Four Degrees o f Freedom Robotic Arm
carefully simulated and designed to increase the capability. Arm
speed, torque, gripping distance, and balance were also In the design, two linear actuators are used for high lifting
thoroughly calculated and tested. The control system used capacity and one DC geared motor for the gripping purpose. The
Raspberry pi as a processor. Arduino Mega was used for the linear actuator has 5 kg lifting capability and the grip has 7.5kg
sensing parts and communication whereas the driving and video of gripping torque. 12V input voltage is needed to drive the
streaming has been done with Raspberry pi. linear actuator. The measurement of one grip to another is 13
inches. In this design, the arm can disable the bomb and can
A. Chassis Design and Simulation carry the disarmed bomb as evidence to the base or to any remote
The mechanical structure of the robot was initially designed place dedicated to disposing of the bomb.
with SolidWorks (Fig. 1). The building of the robot started after
an appropriate simulation of the center of gravity (Fig. 2) and
mass property. Four individual wiper motors were used for the
drive system to optimize torque and efficiency. Aluminum alloy
was chosen as a robot building material for providing strength
with lighter weight. Every part of the robot is custom designed.
The robot was designed in such a way that it can be used in both
indoor and outdoor environments. So the design concern is to
build the robot small so that it can move easily into a small
space. It has a length of 2 feet 2 inches and a width of 1 foot 3
inches. 4 wheels drive gives an optimum performance on the (a) (b)

indoor as well as the outdoor surface.

(c)
Fig. 3. Solid works model of robotic arm (a) solder (b) elbow and (c) wrist joint.

(a) (b) Grubler’s criterion [13] has been used for determining the
degree of freedom calculation,
Where,
I= number of links = 5
J= number of binary joints = 4
N= degree of freedom
N = 3(I-1)-2J (1)
(c) = 4 degrees of freedom
Fig. 1. Solid works model of the full robot (a) 3D (b) side and (c) Top View. [v Translation motion 2, Rotational motion 2]

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 2021 2nd International Conference on Robotics,Electrical and Signal Processing Techniques (ICREST)
C. Working process
The working process of the robot is shown in Fig.4.
The robot will scan for the bomb. If any bomb is traced then it
will try to defuse it and go for collecting evidence. If any
evidence is required to be collected then it will collect it and
return to the base else it will keep looking for bombs. For the
control system architecture, Raspberry pi has been used as the
main processor, and all the robot driving and arm functionality
were controlled by it. Communication, video streaming, and
GPS data read were also done by the main processor. To keep
the robot operating and sensing part isolated Arduino mega was
used as a secondary microcontroller. Hence if any of the
controller units failed, others did not get affected. Ultrasonic
sensor for object’s proximity encoder has been used for motor
rotation and speed measurement purposes. RFID and MPU
6050 has been used for security and onboard motion detection
for stabilizing the robot. MQ-2 gas sensor is used to sense the
concentration of gases such as LPG, propane, methane,
hydrogen, alcohol, smoke, and carbon monoxide in the air.
GSM and RF modules were introduced for communication
purposes.
D. Movement algorithm o f motor
In this simulation, A and B point triggers the DPDT relay and
pin C for the PWM signal. In the simulation relay, and motors
flywheel diodes have been used. A flywheel diode is a diode
connected across an inductor used to eliminate flywheel, which
is the sudden voltage spike seen across an inductive load when
its supply current is suddenly reduced or interrupted. Table I.
shows the conditions of motor movement.
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TABLE I. MOTOR MOVEMENT OF THE ROBOT
A B C R esult
0 0 Enable Brakes
0 1 Enable Clock rotation
1 0 Enable Anti-clock rotation
1 1 Enable Short Circuit
x x Disable Brakes
E. Customize wiper motors
A high torque motor is required to run this robot which can
move with a heavy load. The windshield wiper motor of the
automobile was chosen due to its very reliability and
availability in the local market at a low cost. These types of
motor need some modifications. The body of this motor is
shorted as a ground connection. The ground connection was
removed to make it work as a DC motor with only positive and
negative connections. Compared to other DC gear motors that
are available in the local market the wiper motor shows better
performance in terms of torque, speed, and efficiency.
F. M otor D rivers
Arm movement was done by two linear actuators. One is a 12-
inch stroke and another is a 6-inch stroke. Both are operated at
12V. And the torque of these actuators is 50Kg -Nm. For
gripper, a high torque dc motor was used. For driving the wiper
motor and the actuators a custom-made motor driver is designed
by using relay and power MOSFET based on the H-bridge
principal. In general, an H-bridge is a rather simple circuit,
containing four switching elements, with the load at the center,
in an H-like configuration. The easiest way to build an H bridge
is to use an array of relays from a relay board. A Double Pole
Double Throw (DPDT) relay can generally achieve the same
electrical functionality as an H bridge. Another option is to have
a DPDT relay to set the direction of current flow and a transistor
will allow the current to flow.
Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of motor driver.
This can extend the relay life, as the relay will be switched
while the transistor is off and thereby there is no current flow.
It also enables the use of PWM switching to control the current
level.
G. Customize Optical Encoder
DC wiper motors have no built-in encoder. An optical disc
is used at the back of the shaft. This disc is divided into 60
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holes. An infrared transmitter and a receiver are put on both
sides of the disc. So that during the rotation period, the rotation
of the motor, as well as the speed of this motor, can be
calculated.
voltage divider. The voltage divider decreases the voltage being
measured within the range of the Arduino analog inputs. By this
method, the battery status is measured.
I. Circuit Simulation and Fabrication
The circuits are made in the Printed Circuit Board (PCB).
These circuits are designed by using Proteus Ares Simulating
tools. These circuits are made in single layer PCB (Fig. 8-11).
The full system is designed in 4 pieces of PCB board. Each
board size is 12” * 6”. The Boards are mounted on each other
and look like a 4 storied building. Jumper and power cables are
used to make the necessary connections.

Fig. 7. Integrated optical encoder.

H. Controller and Processor Unit

For making this robot functional two Arduino Mega and an
Arduino Nano were used in the I2C serial. An Arduino Mega
(1st) is used to generate a signal for driving robots and arm Fig. 8. Layout and 3D view of HMI Board.
movement. And a Raspberry Pi is used as a processor. The
software is installed on the raspberry pi. Raspberry Pi is
connected with Arduino Mega through a USB cable for UART
communication. This Raspberry Pi is connected to the internet
through Wi-Fi communication. For making the robot
movement precise sensor data helps to find any obstacle. These
sensors are connected with the second Arduino Mega. Arduino
Mega has been used in the design to control the system because
it’s easier to design a complex control system with an Arduino
Fig. 9. Layout and 3D view of the driver and power distribution board.
Mega. It has 54 digital I/O pins. An nRF01 module is connected
with the second Arduino Mega to communicate with the waste
bins. This Arduino Mega decides whether the robot should
move or not. The LCD monitor is connected with this Arduino
Mega to visualize the robot status and make it user friendly. A
GPS module and a GSM modem are connected with Arduino
Mega through serial communication. GPS module detects the
location coordinate and the GSM modem can send or read SMS
Fig. 10. Layout and 3D view of controller Board.
commands. Any presence of fire the robot can send an alert
SMS to an administrative person with the robot location. The
administrative people can shut down the robot through the SMS
command. This Arduino mega takes the rotation data from the
encoder of the motor so that the speed and length of movement
can be measured. A six-axis gyro is connected with the Arduino
Mega. When the robot climbs up or down through a slope the
driver unit triggers the wiper motor to low speed with high
torque mood. And any sudden change in any axis value is Fig. 11. Layout and 3D view of the communication board.
informed to an administrative person. For this specific purpose,
the MPU 6050 module was used. A vibration sensor is attached J. Web Server
to the robotic structure. If it clashes with any object or if the A web server is introduced for network controlling of the
robot body is producing any vibration, the robot stops its robot. A web server based on Apache (Fig. 12) was built in
movement and sends a notification to administrative personnel, Raspberry Pi. For this purpose, a static IP address of Raspberry
and waits for further instructions. An RFID card reader is Pi is needed to settle up. A gateway address was written and the
connected with an Arduino Nano and this Arduino Nano is HTML script was uploaded. There is an additional python script
connected with the Arduino Mega in I2C bus communication. for communication with the rover movement module to the
Arduino’s analog inputs can measure the voltage between 0-5V webserver.
DC and this range can be increased by two resistors to create a

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Fig. 12. Web server for controlling and getting feedback.
K. Implementation o f the Robot
The full robot chassis and arm were custom designed.
Aluminum alloy was used for its strength and lightweight
purpose. The weight of the robot is approx. 25kg. Being very
small in size it can move easily. The tires of the wheel were
made of rubber tubes for more grip. Rubber layers have been
used in the arm wrist as well for the gripping purpose.
(a) (b)
Fig. 13. Implementation of the robot (a) mechanical claw (b) full body.
The fully electrical system was designed and fabricated locally.
Due to fabrication limitation, and cost optimization a single­
layer board was designed. The full circuit PCBA was assembled
by hand. The full system was designed in 4 pieces of PCB board
(Fig. 14-15) and they are connected through JST connectors.
(a)
Fig. 14. (a) Driver and power distribution Board (b) Communication Board.
(a) (b)
Fig. 15. (a) Controller board (b) HMI Board.
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2021 2nd International Conference on Robotics,Electrical and Signal Processing Techniques (ICREST)
L. Battery
This robot needs high ampere currents to run properly. For
this purpose, Li-ion battery onboard power supply is used to
provide power to the robot. A 14.8V V DC and 26600mAh
capacity battery pack is made from a 3.7V DC and 3800mAh
single Li-ion cell. A Li-ion battery is too dangerous if it’s not
handled with proper care. If all the components of the robot are
active at the same time, the fully charged robot can work for at
least 2 hours. The charge status of each battery cell should
remain the same. Hence the pack was charged by the balance
charging method and the battery unit was covered with proper
insulation. To run the control circuit with all sensors it requires
a 12W power source. A 7.4 volt and 6.08A lithium polymer
battery was used to serve this purpose.
M. Dual Camera
Two cameras have been used for more visibility in any kind
of disaster situation. One camera is mounted on the chassis and
another camera is mounted on the robotic arm. Those USB
cameras are connected with raspberry through USB ports for
live video streaming. A speaker is also connected through a 3.5
audio port. Through this speaker, the robot can announce any
required announcement.
Fig. 16. Dual Camera video feed.
III. R e s u l t a n d An a l y s is
A. Performance o f the modified motors
To realize the performance of the customized motor, the
customized motor was tested with different speed vs torque
configurations to compare it with the pristine motor. The graph
shown in figure 17 shows that the performance of the motor
increases after the modification.
(b)
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B. Circuit power consumption comparatively cost-effective, and the dual camera interface has
This robot hardware circuit design also focuses on the shown expected performance. More investment in research and
optimization of minimal energy and power consumption. The development is required in the field of robotics so that this type
tolerance of every component was considered for the design. of robot can be commercialized and used in the practical field
to make the life of the user easier and safer.
TABLE II. CIRCUIT POWER CONSUMPTION OF THE ROBOT
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precise actuator drivers, night vision, and X-ray cameras. The
designed framework has shown good coordination between
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design of the bomb disposal system was effective and shows
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