EOD Bomb Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robot

"Pigstick" is a British Army term for the waterjet disrupter commonly deployed on the Wheelbarrow remotely operated vehicle against IRA bombs in the 1970s. It fires an explosively-propelled jet of water to disrupt the circuitry of a bomb and thereby disable it with a low risk of detonation. The modern pigstick is a very reliable device and fires many times with minimal maintenance. It is now used worldwide. It is about 485 mm long and weighs 3 kg. It is made of metal, and can be mounted on a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). These factors make it a very effective, safe way to disarm bombs. The "Pigstick" is also known as the PAN (Percussion Actuated Neutralizer), or just water cannon.
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.