Ukraine is riddled with land mines, drones and Ai can help


Early on a June morning in 2023, my colleagues and I drove down a bumpy dirt road north of Kyiv in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Armed Forces were conducting training exercises nearby, and mortar shells arced through the sky.

We arrived at a vast field for a technology demonstration set up by the United Nations. Across the 25-hectare field—that’s about the size of 62 American football fields—the U.N. workers had scattered 50 to 100 inert mines and other ordnance. Our task was to fly our drone over the area and use our machine learning software to detect as many as possible. And we had to turn in our results within 72 hours. The scale was daunting: The area was 10 times as large as anything we’d attempted before with our drone demining startup, Safe Pro AI.

Read more…
Source: IEEE Spectrum


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Ukrainian demining personnel trained with OSCE and EU support

    May 19, 2025

    Seventeen representatives from Ukraine’s demining agencies underwent a two-and-a-half month training to obtain an international qualification in explosive ordnance disposal. Organized by the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine with support from the European Union, the training programme concluded on 18 May and included a combination of theoretical and practical exercises in line with the International Mine ...

  • Using Drones and AI for a Mine-free World

    May 16, 2025

    Waseda University and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) signed a cooperation agreement in 2018. Since then, the two have been jointly researching and developing solutions for detecting landmines and unexploded ordnance. As part of this, Professor Hideyuki Sawada of the Faculty of Science and Engineering is working on detecting buried landmines using drones ...

  • EU announces €8 Million for post-conflict stability in Lebanon

    May 14, 2025

    The European Union announced 8 million Euro to support stability, security, and peace in Lebanon, following 13 months of conflict. The project will be implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The European Union, in partnership with UNDP and UNODC, is assisting communities affected by ...

  • Cambodia: CMAC destroys US cluster bomb, reaffirms mine-free commitment

    May 14, 2025

    The demining authorities have safely destroyed a US-dropped cluster bomb found in a cashew plantation in Ratanakiri province, reaffirming Cambodia’s commitment to becoming mine- and ERW-free. The demolition was conducted on Monday by Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC)’s Demining Unit 5 in Kamen Thum village, Samakki commune, O’Chum district. The munition, a CBU-25/A cluster bomb, contained ...

  • Taiwan to provide US$2m for mine clearance in Ukraine

    May 12, 2025

    Taiwan will provide US$2 million to an international mine action fund for Ukraine. In a statement, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence said the Taiwanese mission in Vilnius had expressed its intention to contribute US$2 million to Lithuania’s ongoing demining efforts in Ukraine during a meeting with Lithuanian Defence Ministry representatives. “Taiwan and Lithuania unanimously recognise the ...

  • Cambodia: Battambang farmer unearths 250-pound US bomb, as UK assesses demining funding

    May 12, 2025

    HALO Trust Cambodia responded to an unusual Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) call-out over the weekend, when a farmer excavating his land in Battambang province’s Samlout district discovered a Mk81 bomb. The district is one of the most landmine contaminated areas in Cambodia, however finding large air-dropped bombs in this part of the country is rare. HALO ...

  • Sri Lanka: Prime Minister calls landmine clearance national imperative

    May 3, 2025

    Even after 16 years after the guns fell silent in Sri Lanka’s civil war, the hidden danger of landmines still lingers across the Northern and Eastern provinces. Speaking at a Donor Coordination and Appreciation Ceremony in Colombo yesterday, Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya called landmine clearance a national imperative, not merely a humanitarian task. Around 23 ...

  • How southern Ukraine demined

    May 3, 2025

    In Mykolaiv region, demining operators are using an industrial drone system equipped with a modern magnetometer to detect explosive ordnance. This was reported by the Ministry of Defense, according to Ukrinform. The ministry reminds that southern Ukraine is one of the most heavily mined regions in the country. To effectively locate and identify mines and other ...

  • Estonia: Over 1,200 historic explosives found in Saaremaa

    April 29, 2025

    During planned demining operations that began late last week on Saaremaa, bomb disposal experts have already discovered 1,260 explosive devices. The search efforts will continue through May 5. The first days of large-scale demining operations that began on April 25 in Sõrve, Saaremaa, have yielded a high number of discoveries. In just three days, 1,260 explosive ...

  • Bosnian centre trains dogs for Ukrainian demining efforts

    April 29, 2025

    Mey, a Belgian shepherd, and her trainer Kenan Muftic learned how to effectively detect mines and unexploded ordnance last week, negotiating various obstacles and scenarios in a grass field in Sarajevo’s suburb of Butmir. Since its establishment in 2004, the Norwegian People’s Aid Global Training Centre for Mine and Explosive Detection Dogs in Sarajevo has trained ...

  • Azerbaijani deminer injured in landmine blast in Gazakh

    April 28, 2025

    An employee of the Azerbaijan Mine Action Agency (ANAMA) was injured in a landmine explosion while conducting clearance operations in the liberated village of Gizilhajili, in Gazakh district. The incident occurred when Elnur Pashayev, an ANAMA employee (born in 1985), detonated an anti-personnel mine during his work in the region. Pashayev sustained minor injuries from the ...

  • Vietnam: Mine clearance at Quang Tri ancient citadel completed

    April 25, 2025

    The UK’s Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and the Quang Tri Mine Action Centre (QTMAC), in coordination with the Quang Tri Ancient Citadel Management Board, on April 24 handed over the cleared site after completing mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance at the Quang Tri Ancient Citadel, a national special relic site. Since September 2024, the MAG ...

  • Cambodia: Botum Sakor district in Koh Kong to be declared mine-free

    April 25, 2025

    The Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) is set to declare Botum Sakor district in Koh Kong province free of landmines on April 29, according to CMAA spokesman Lang Kosal. Kosal stated that the CMAA, in collaboration with the Embassy of India and the Koh Kong provincial administration, will officially announce Botum Sakor as ...

  • Bosnia and Herzegovina Armed Forces cleared over 900,000 sq m of land in 2024 demining operations

    April 23, 2025

    The Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) cleared 903,326 square meters of land in 2024 as part of ongoing demining efforts, the BiH Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday. In total, over 14.7 million square meters of land were returned to civilian use, contributing to the development and safety of local communities, said the ...

  • Ukraine: Dog teams trained in landmine detection deploy in Mykolaiv Oblast

    April 23, 2025

    As spring arrives in Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine, four teams of highly trained dogs, and their handlers, have been deployed to help detect landmines and explosive ordnance (EO). The teams are working in areas that were heavily shelled between spring and autumn 2022. A team of EO experts works with the dogs and their handlers to investigate ...

  • Iraq: IKMAA Destroys Mines, Explosives, and War Remnants in the Kurdistan Region

    April 22, 2025

    As part of ongoing mine clearance efforts across the Kurdistan Region, the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) has safely destroyed hundreds of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) that posed a significant threat to civilians. IKMAA Operations in Erbil: In Majidawa village, Soran District, IKMAA teams successfully carried out an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) operation. Following ...

  • EU allocates €23M for demining operations in Azerbaijan

    April 17, 2025

    The total funding from the EU for demining operations in Azerbaijan, taking into account the funds allocated this year, will reach approximately 23 million euros, the European External Action Service told Report. Together with the 10 million euros that the EU intends to mobilize for the International Centre of Excellence and Training for Mine Action for ...

  • Making south Lebanon safer: UNIFIL’s efforts in UXO clearance

    April 16, 2025

    Since the cessation of hostilities agreement on 27 November 2024, UNIFIL has carried out 34 clearance operations in south Lebanon, removing 91 unexploded ordnance (UXOs) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). While routine demining activities remain on hold, these efforts are helping to restore safety for peacekeepers, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), local communities, and humanitarian ...

  • Russian sappers destroy more than 185,000 mines, explosive items in Kursk Region

    April 15, 2025

    Russian sappers have discovered and destroyed over 185,000 mines and explosive objects in the Kursk Region, the regional authorities said on their Telegram channel. “Currently, Russian sappers have detected and neutralized 185,135 mines and explosive objects in the Kursk Region,” the post states. Additionally, it was reported that more than 675 kilometers of roads and 26,000 ...

  • Lebanese Army receives bomb disposal equipment from France

    April 15, 2025

    A French military plane carrying bomb disposal equipment donated to the Lebanese Army landed Sunday at the Rafik Hariri International Airport, the army said on Tuesday. “The donation was received in the presence of officers from the Lebanese and French armies,” the Lebanese Army said in a statement. The announcement comes hours after a Lebanese soldier ...

  • Lithuania pledges additional EUR 30 mln for military support to Ukraine at Ramstein

    April 12, 2025

    Lithuanian Minister of National Defence Dovilė Šakalienė announced new contributions for military aid to Ukrainians at the 27th meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine’s Defence in the Ramstein format in Brussels. “Lithuania pledged additional EUR 30 million contribution to Ukraine at Rammstein meeting today. In total, EUR 110 million pledged in 2025, aiming for EUR ...

  • Vietnam: Quảng Trị an exemplary model in handling explosive remnants of war

    April 11, 2025

    After nearly 30 years of international cooperation for unexploded ordnance (UXO) removal, the central province of Quảng Trị has become a model for addressing the consequences of war. Quảng Trị is among the localities which bore the heaviest burden of the war, with unexploded devices impacting approximately 80 per cent of its total area. These residual ...