Real-world design challenge has applications for ASME members in Iraq

Emily Smith
ASME NEWS

Locating and removing the land mines that are left behind after warring countries have reconciled was the design challenge for this year's ASME Student Design Competition, which culminated last month at the 2004 Congress. While dozens of ASME student section teams throughout the year were applying their mechanical creativity to that task, a design team of a different sort was grappling with another, equally deadly real-world problem: how to protect U.S. troops from improvised explosive devices (IED) buried in the sands of Iraq.

It was in July 2004, during training exercises prior to being deployed to Iraq, that ASME member Jonathan Kuniholm first saw the life-saving capabilities of a device that, with some retooling, came to be christened Bubba.

The brainchild of another Marine under his command, Howard Akers, Bubba is a remote-controlled, battery-powered vehicle that acts as a scout for the footmobile patrols of the 1/23's Combat Engineers of 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 4th Combat Engineer Battalion operating in the rural desert of the western part of Iraq.

Jon Kuniholm, an ASME member, on patrol in northern Iraq. Serving in the Marine Corps' Combat Engineers Battalion, he was deployed in July.

Used for reconnaissance whenever the unit goes out on patrol, Bubba is equipped with a miniature wireless video camera and capable of delivering a plastic explosive charge to destroy a discovered IED or mine, thus enabling the humans in the unit, following at a safe distance behind, to carry on with their task without risk of injury.

Originally designed with a two-speed transmission, Bubba's twin electric engines were retooled into a single, slower gear that made the device easier to control while slowing the consumption of battery power. The transmission switch on the remote was changed to deliver the explosive charge.

Bubba's creation is an example of classic engineering design: refining the objectives of two distinct devices — a remote-controlled, off-the-shelf Traxxas E-Maxx all-terrain radio-controlled truck and an explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) robot that was built by another Marine unit — to achieve a new goal.

As a member of the 4th Combat Engineer Battalion, Kuniholm wrote in an e-mail last month from Iraq, "We build and destroy obstacles to protect friendly positions and to allow the infantry to pass through enemy positions. Part of this responsibility includes sweeping and clearing minefields. Combat engineers are trained in the use of explosives for demolition."

Watching the problems encountered by the EOD robot while he was training at the March Air Force Base in California, Kuniholm recalled his dismissive reaction a few weeks earlier to Akers' suggestion that their unit be equipped with a mechanical scout that would be sent ahead to investigate and identify suspicious objects. Upon seeing the difficulties encountered by what Kuniholm described as a complex, multifeatured, tracked EOD robot, the captain revised his initial opinion. Thoughts of variations began to creep into his mind.

Soon, Kuniholm was on the phone and the Internet with his four business partners at Tackle Design requesting backup. He e-mailed design specs to his North Carolina-based colleagues. Having no funding, Kuniholm shelved Akers' idea of a video camera and hand-held video screen as too expensive, requesting instead "the capability of delivering a plastic explosive charge to destroy a discovered mine or IED," Kuniholm explained in his e-mail.

Armed with video capability, Bubba serves as the eyes of Combat Engineers in Iraq.

Kuniholm had told his partners, one of whom is ASME member Jason Stevens, that he would pay for the materials. As the project progressed, two other partners, who were assembling the device, decided that visual capability was too vital to ignore. They made the necessary adjustments to Bubba's platform and secured the video camera and small LCD screen for Kuniholm themselves.

In two weeks, partners Chuck Messer and Kevin Webb designed and built the device using Kuniholm's initial request and subsequent input. The two engineers also got corporate donations of robot components. Traxxas donated the E-Maxx truck. And Kuniholm's mother started a not-for-profit organization to pay for other needed parts.

One day in August, Kuniholm packed the disassembled device into his Marine-issue footlocker, said goodbye to his wife and four-year-old son, and flew to Iraq.

Although he is pleased with the overall performance over the past three months, Kuniholm wrote, "There are a number of modifications that I would like to make to Bubba, but, as you might imagine, having the time, tools and materials to do this is not realistic given our mission requirements."

Related story: Members far from home at holidays

 

back to news & features