EOD Bomb Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robot

The name pigstick is an odd analogy coming from the verb meaning “to hunt the wild boar on horseback with a spear.”
It was invented for the British army in 1972; prior to that time bombs would be dismantled by hand, which was obviously very dangerous. It has to be held three inches (76 mm) from the bomb to disarm it, still putting the user in danger. So explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) operators started connecting them to Wheelbarrow robots.
...in the period 1972-1978, and taking into account machines which had been exported, over 400 Wheelbarrows were destroyed while dealing with terrorist devices. In many of these cases, it can be assumed that the loss of a machine represented the saving of an EOD man's life.
—House of Commons Hansard Debates for 21 Oct 1998