Walberton man's mine hunters saving lives

A Walberton academic has been recognised for his work in developing minehunting robots.

Dr Paul Conway Fisher has spent ten years perfecting the techniques to enable the machines to save lives on battlefields.

His ground-breaking research has led the University of Portsmouth to award him a doctorate. The ceremony took place in Portsmouth Guildhall.

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Dr Conway Fisher (57), of Arundel Road, said: "It's very satisfying that the work I have been doing could save lives."

His interest in the subject arose from the time of the late Diana, Princess of Wales' desire to help landmine victims around the world.

Dr Conway Fisher wanted to use the technology with which he had developed automatic access systems to enable disabled people to get in and out of buildings easily or to secure gated enclosures for wealthy homeowners.

At the same time, the University of Portsmouth was interested in developing the work on artificial intelligence which was being pioneered in America.

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The AI models worked well in labs but lacked the robustness to function on minefields with their rough terrain.

Dr Conway Fisher's solution was to analyse the hunting techniques of animals such as ants and dogs by extending and developing work by Dr Endre Kadar in Connecticut in the late 1990s among others..

He turned how they walk and turn their bodies into a maths programme which could be used by a computer.

This worked well when it was put to the test with small robots in labs. The results were written up in a thesis by Dr Conway Fisher.

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The results of his research are being made available in the British Library and online to spread as much awareness as possible about them to benefit the maximum number of people.

They are also being presented to September's international conference on climbing and walking robots in a paper jointly written by Dr Conway Fisher.

The next step is to implant the programmes into the more robust robots which are being developed in America and Italy for outdoor use in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

These will eventually emerge from their extensive trials to take the place of human mine hunters to seek out the deadly weapons by smelling plastics, gases and explosives.

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"They will be able to search for targets in the air, on water and underground," he stated.

The robots being tested are 15-24ins long and some 5ins high. But it is not yet known when they will be put into use.

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