Challenge progress

How the solution works

TREMBITA brings together more than 20 specialists, including experienced design engineers. The team has spent over a decade developing equipment for cleaning and inspecting main pipelines and has applied this experience to humanitarian demining since 2022. Conversations with deminers who must approach unknown hazardous objects during manual excavation inspired the platform. The solution combines high-precision RTK navigation, a soil-lifting system, water cleaning and video monitoring. Its aim is to let a deminer expose and visually assess a suspicious object remotely before approaching it.

How the solution works

Kaban Digger is a team of Ukrainian engineers who have worked together for over ten years. Their expertise spans the full ground robotics development cycle: mechanical design, proprietary electronics, computer vision and field testing. For the challenge, they are developing a semi-autonomous system for remote soil micro-excavation near explosive objects. It is designed for one operator or an operator and one assistant, without dedicated supporting infrastructure. The aim is to reduce deminers’ time in the immediate danger zone and physically demanding manual work. The team also aspires to move from individual assembly to standardised mass production.

How the solution works

Badger was formed at SID City Science Park at Lviv Polytechnic National University. Students, postgraduates, park staff and Tech StartUp School residents bring expertise in robotics, systems engineering, hardware and software. Their solution is a compact, remotely controlled micro-excavation module for ground robotic platforms. A revolver-style H-shaped arm rotates 180°, allowing tools to change without retracting the boom. A drum cutter removes soil, a stiff brush cleans the exposed surface, and a pneumatic system clears dust. Cameras provide a final visual check. This sequence is designed to reduce direct human involvement in excavation.

How the solution works

AUTOGENBOT’s four-person engineering team covers electronics, software, mechanical design, computer vision and field testing. Humanitarian demining in Ukraine is the first application being developed for its off-road robotic platforms. The solution combines camera-based navigation with a proprietary supersonic air-jet excavation head on an arm with three degrees of freedom. High-pressure air removes soil around a buried object. According to the team, navigation is designed for environments where satellite signals are unavailable or jammed. The concept provides for long-range control beyond direct line of sight, allowing the operator to remain outside the danger zone.

How the solution works

WExMEx is a robotics research team at the University of Oslo’s Department of Technology Systems, combining field robotics experience with practical mine-action knowledge. Its name stands for Water-Jet Excavation for Mine Exposure. A controlled water jet washes soil away from a buried object while a vacuum line removes the resulting slurry. A camera monitors the process, with no solid tool touching the object. The team is developing a complete system mounted on a mobile robot that can be operated remotely from cover, reducing the need for a person to work directly beside the object.