Development of a robotic arm for dangerous object disposal

The Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria has become a menace and threat to the security of lives and property most especially in the Northern part of the country. The use of Bombs and dangerous unsuspected objects is the weapon employed to carry out this deadly act. The number of lives lost as well as personnel who sustain injuries while discharging their duties is now on the increase as a result of lack of initial assessment of a dreadful scene or an object suspected to be harmful. Though preventive and counter attacking measures, such as use of protective vest have been employed to reduce the risk experienced; these however do not guarantee safety which can run into huge cost to restore in terms of infrastructures and properties. Hence this paper proposes the development of a robotic arm for dangerous object disposal. A three-degree of freedom robotic arm was developed using a microcontroller programmed with (MPLAB) integrated development environment software, interfaced to a camera that transmits the video by way of monitoring the scene on a television set. The system is activated by a remote control thereby providing a line of defense to human lives and preventing loss of proven and tested personnel.