Published in the journal of ERW and mine action
The use of mechanical demining equipment has greatly benefited humanitarian-demining operations worldwide. One machine type, the mine roller, has several key advantages when compared to other mechanical demining equipment. Because rollers are simple to operate, easy to maintain and have few consumable parts, they have low initial costs and operating expenses.
Despite their advantages in humanitarian-demining operations, rollers are not as widely used as other mechanical equipment, such as flails and tillers. Because roller testing is, to date, either ad hoc or limited mostly to surface-buried mines, the capabilities and limitations of rollers are not widely known. This has led to a generally held belief in the humanitarian community that roller performance is suboptimal; consequently, roller development, testing and use has remained stagnant and limited.
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