Page 279 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Top to bottom: Armored bomb scraper testing in Pleasanton, California; Virtual cab gives operator control from one mile away.
pipe machine that builds 800-foot-long sections for the tar sands industry. Still, those 10 percent have turned out some pretty big results for the customers who decided to invest. And, some amaz- ing innovations for Peterson’s portfolio.
BOMB SCRAPER
In 2005, Peterson’s Special Services group in San Leandro helped build a machine for the unex- ploded ordnance (UXO) remediation market. It was called the Range Master. Terry Northcutt of Timberland Environmental Services brought his idea to Peterson. The fab shop outfitted a Cat 633
scraper with body armor and telemetry gear for real-time munitions clearing, controlled from one mile away. They nicknamed it the Bomb Buster or Bomb Scraper. It was armored to withstand un- intentional detonations up to a 105 mm projec- tile. It could also be operated manually in low-risk situations. Remote operations were housed in a special trailer with three large monitors, a com- puter system, a panel of switches, and joysticks for navigation. The “virtual cab”, built with the help of a special radio-video vendor, is the ultimate vid- eo game. From the control seat, the operator has a panoramic view via five onboard video cameras, which give multiple views of its orientation and how various parts of the machine are functioning. Fail-safe overrides were built into the system in case something went wrong. Peterson Power sup- plied the generator that powered the support trail- er. It was an impressive system.
The Range Master could clear one acre an hour at roughly $4,100—about 70 percent less than tra- ditional excavation. It was designed to penetrate up to twelve inches below ground, to collect, then segregate and transport UXO to a prepared site for disposal and remediation. The Range Master has worked at multiple sites including Fort Ord
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