The Digger Foundation is a Swiss humanitarian and non profit organization. The Foundation is based in Tavannes, Switzerland, and its goal is to promote technological assistance project in humanitarian demining. The Foundation produce demining vehicles marketed and branded “DIGGER DTR (Demining Technologies Research)”.
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The founder of DIGGER DTR, Frédéric Guerne, had worked as an engineer at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) on landmine detection projects, which ended in 1997. Passionate and engaged, he gathered around him about thirty volunteers from different but complementary fields and with the necessary know-how and in 1998 the team took up work. Initially an association, DIGGER DTR became a foundation in 2005.
The anteater is the symbol of Digger. Its long, tubular snouts and its tapering tongue help it to search, dig and clean the ground.
DIGGER DTR's first device, the D-1, was a radio-controlled, tracked flail mower devoted to clearing scrubland and severing tripwires. The D-1 wasarmoured for protection from incidental mine detonation. DIGGER DTR estimates that clearing brush from a minefield (thereby exposing any obscured mines) doubles the rate at which human deminers can work while reducing casualties by 80%.
Taking in consideration remarks and comments of deminers following tests of D-1, engineers and technicians of DIGGER DTR developed a new concept: the DIGGER D-2. Unlike D-1 this machine is able to detonate mines as well as cutting vegetation. This is accomplished by the addition of a mine flail unit. Hitting the ground violently, it can dig up to 20 cm deep. After its passage, most of mines are detonated and work of demining personnel is simpler and safer. That helps to increase the speed of de-mining from five to ten times. For its new tasks, D-2 is equipped with a more powerful engine, 140 horsepower (100 kW) against 57 horsepower (43 kW) for D-1.
However, human control still remains important to ensure complete removal of mines. Even with the added measure of safety brought about by the development of the DIGGER DTR machines, mines remain a significant hazard to civilians in current and past war zones.
The new demining machine, is based on deminers’ requirements, fields experiences with the DIGGER D-2 and tests conducted by different recognized institutions, is characterized by a more powerful engine (173 hp) and its compatibility with different specific tools (flail, tiller …) or standard Caterpillar® (shovel, fork …) easily interchangeable, even in operations. The DIGGER D-3 can be used in various applications such as land preparation, vegetation clearance, area reduction and mine clearance. Like its predecessors, it is completely shielded, easy to maintain and equipped with hydraulic and cooling oversized systems to withstand the more difficult operating conditions. Actually, the use of simple technology allows the D-3 to be repaired and maintained easily on the field.
The weight of D-3 allows it to be easily transported on a 6×6 truck, which is an essential condition for the use in remote and isolated mine fields.
Thanks to the non-profit and humanitarian principles of DIGGER DTR, the acquisition and running costs of the DIGGER D-3 are fixed to an affordable level for humanitarian demining organizations[2].
After six months of testing in Sudan, the DIGGER D-2 has officially joined a team of deminers, which was accredited on October 30, 2006 by the Mine Action Office of the United Nations in Sudan. For the Digger Foundation, this opens the doors to a new stage : deploying the machine in mine fields.
This phase of testing was made possible thanks to collaboration with the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD). The FSD will now introduce the D-2 into one of its programs in Sudan. The tests in Sudan provided valuable data to Digger technicians regarding the demining machine. The testing also pointed to a number of improvements that needed to be made to facilitate the use and upkeep of the machine in the field. The data collected during the tests allowed the development of a new “series 1″ D-2 which was completed in September 2006. This improved version of the DIGGER D-2 is now ready for series production[3].
In September 2008, the DIGGER D-2 was tested by the Swedish organization SWEDEC, as a part of the ITEP Program (International Test and Evaluation Program for Humanitarian Demining). This neutral report shows the strenghts of DIGGER D-2 Mine Clearance Machine, especially the Flail Tool which achieved an outstanding clearance rate of 99.3%. The survivability of the machine against an 8 kg TNT Anti Tank mine was also proved during these tests[4].
Just in time to be presented at the 6th Humanitarian Demining Symposium in Šibenik where Digger was exhibiting, the brand new DIGGER D-3 equipped with a tiller tool has been awarded the accreditation of the HCR-CTRO (Croatian testing authority) which allows it officially to be operated in the minefields of Croatia and some adjacent countries.
The scope of this certification is much broader as many other countries, without national testing capability, do recognize it as their “de facto” accreditation. The process leading to this certification was covering several aspects of the activities of demining companies, like vegetation clearance, depth and uniformity of soil disturbance and, clearly the most important thing, capacity to destroy or activate buried anti-personal mines (100% success achieved by the DIGGER D-3). This accreditation is a new step in the international recognition of the quality of the Digger machines[5].
The design and the armoring of the DIGGER D-3 have been developed to withstand to antitank mines detonations.
The survivability of the machine has been tested in Sweden with 8kg TNT antitank mines. During these tests, the vehicle was not damaged; however the tools (flail and tiller) were not repairable in the field.
Following this experience, the design of the tools has been improved. The new generation of tiller has been tested in real conditions in Croatia, with an antitank mine detonation of 6kg TNT. The explosion has slightly damaged the tiller tool; indeed it was easily repairable on the field. The good results obtained in Croatia have shown the good quality and survivability of this new generation of tiller tool.
The risk with antitank mines remains important for the digging tool, even for machines much larger than the DIGGER D-3. It is important to know that you should never operate with any kind of machines in antitank minefields, because each explosion of this kind of mine reduces the life of the machines.
DIGGER DTR has an operational experience in both Africa (Sudan, Chad, Benin, Senegal) in Eastern Europe (Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina) and in Western Europe (Switzerland, France).
These operational experiences have confirmed that the DIGGER D-3 is a versatile machine characterized by its resistance to extreme working conditions, as well as its performance and reliability with antipersonnel and antitank mines.
Several innovative solutions, such as the camera system to help the remote piloting, assist deminers to increase their working efficiency whilst reducing the danger inherent to the demining task.
In addition, the presence and commitment of DIGGER DTR in Francophone countries, its current operational experience in Chad and its collaboration with several government and NGO will allow its future clients to benefit on the strong experience of our operational and technical support team. The partnership of the Digger Foundation with the West African center for humanitarian mine action training CPADD in Benin, where a Digger machine is used to train futur operators in mechanical demining, creates interesting synergies in African countries.
The mission of DIGGER DTR, non-profit Foundation, is to promote technical assistance for humanitarian demining. The Foundation supports demining efforts regardless of their location or religious, ethnic or political orientation. The Foundation supports projects motivated by an active and profound humanitarian spirit of assistance. The Foundation is recognized as a charitable organization by the Swiss Canton of Berne, Switzerland.
Since 1998, DIGGER DTR is specialized in the design of mine clearance assistance tools. Its goal is to provide deminers appropriate solutions that improve the efficiency and safety of their work. By combining the know-how of the Swiss machine industry with the principles of a non-profit organization, Digger Foundation is able to offer both cost-effectivene and high quality products[6].
Type Hydrostatic, electronic remote control[8]