Design of a Wireless-Controlled Mobile Robot for Geo-Tag Metal Detection

Abstract

Hidden metallic hazards such as unexploded ordnance are typically located with handheld detectors, which expose operators to risk, provide limited coverage, and leave sparse digital records. High-end robotic and geophysical solutions exist but are expensive, complex, and often over-specified for small team use, while many low-cost builds lack mapping and cloud telemetry. This project proposes a low-cost, teleoperated metal-detection robot that fuses electromagnetic sensing, differential-drive mobility, and cloud Internet of Things. An ESP32-S3 governs an L298N motor driver and a servo-swept search coil repurposed from a handheld detector; a NEO- 8 Global Positioning System module provides geolocation; Blynk Cloud supplies bidirectional control and visualization. A segmented 4-cell Li-ion power architecture with fixed-output buck converters isolates noisy and sensitive rails. Field trials demonstrated reliable teleoperation over Wi-Fi, coin detection at about 2 cm, larger targets at 6 cm, and roughly 480 min of run time. The results show an accessible, cloud-connected pathway to geotagged metal search that improves operator safety and recordkeeping using commodity hardware.

Received: 29 January 2026 | Revised: 28 July 2026 | Accepted: 17 September 2026

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data available on request from the corresponding Author upon reasonable request.

Author Contribution Statement

Brian Kaduma: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Emanuele Lindo Secco: Conceptualization, Validation, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project administration.