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
Related:
- Government agrees Swiss soldiers can support UN humanitarian demining
June 12, 2020
A group of four Swiss army officers is set to help a United Nations agency in Geneva with its humanitarian demining activities. The Federal Council (executive body) on Friday agreed that the Swiss soldiers can help set up an information system for UN peace missions developed at the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (CIDHG). This mission ...
- Armenian Military Engineers Cleared 37.6 Acres Of Syrian Land Since Feb 2019 – Authorities
May 5, 2020
Armenian military engineers have demined 15.2 hectares (37.6 acres) of territory in Syria since February 2019, the Armenian Center for Humanitarian Demining and Expertise said on Tuesday. On February 8, 2019, an Armenian humanitarian mission of 83 people began work in Syria’s Aleppo city. It was set to demine territories outside the combat zone, inform the population about mines and provide medical assistance to the residents ...
- UAE playing key role in supporting global, regional demining efforts
April 3, 2020
The UAE has played a key role in supporting global and regional demining efforts, as well as in reducing the social and economic effects of mines, especially in Yemen, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Kuwait. In observance of the International Mine Awareness Day on 4th April, the Emirates News Agency, WAM, highlights the country’s tremendous efforts to ...
- Glyndwr University researcher seeks real world data to develop AI landmine clearance
January 20, 2020
A landmine research project which aims to develop an artificial intelligence approach to mine clearance is being developed at Wrexham Glyndwr University. The project – which is currently in its developmental stages – is being developed by Computing PhD student Alexander Bruckbauer who is working on building the model under the supervision of Professor of Computing ...
- Zimbabwean de-mining expertise ends deadly Falklands landmine legacy
December 29, 2019
Thirty-seven years ago, soldiers from Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, planting thousands of the weapons. British troops may have liberated the islanders, but a few dozen Zimbabweans keep them safe now. For the past decade, the Zimbabwean contractors have cleared landmines that Argentina’s army laid – and next year the clearance work will finally end.More than 1,000 ...
- The annual gathering of the world’s EOD community
October 21, 2019
Explosive weapons, both conventional munition or improvised explosive, have become a fact of modern conflict. Behind the conflict, this threat for millions across the globe is, in reality, a fact of life which continues to decimate communities across the world. UNICEF estimates one casualty every 20 minutes caused by explosive weapons. Responding to this ongoing crisis, ...
- How is the reconstruction of Iraq going?
January 31, 2019
In July 2017, the last Islamic State fighters left in the city of Mosul attempted to flee by swimming across the mighty Tigris River that runs through Iraq’s second largest city. They had been defeated. As patriotic music blared out of portable speaker systems, Iraqi soldiers danced on tanks and re-raised their national flag. But, as ...
- Drones Used to Find Toylike “Butterfly” Land Mines
December 28, 2018
A type of land mine called the “butterfly” has a particularly insidious reputation for two reasons: It is known for killing or crippling children who may pick up what looks a lot like a green plastic toy, and its mostly nonmetallic construction means it often evades traditional mine detectors. Butterfly mines’ light-touch detonators go off ...
- NATO trains Iraqi Security Forces to strengthen demining skills
December 21, 2017
In November and December this year, a mobile training team led by Slovakia conducted a training course in manual demining for Iraqi Security Forces. This was held in Iraq in the framework of NATO’s training and capacity building activities in support of Iraqi security forces and institutions. It was developed and implemented in coordination with ...
- UNOPS and the government of Japan support demining in Ukraine
December 12, 2017
With funding from Japan, a project is addressing an urgent need to replace the State Emergency Service of Ukraine’s obsolete demining equipment. To help increase the efficiency of the country’s demining process, the Government of Japan worked with UNOPS to purchase vehicles and ground-penetrating radar detectors, worth more than $200,000. Read more… Source: UNOPS
- Global Clearance Solutions launches Service Division with a focus on the EOD/IEDD sector
November 21, 2017
GCS expands its service portfolio in the wake of terrorist attacks and a growing number of conflicts Global Clearance Solutions (GCS) is a leading provider of high quality and purpose-built mechanical solutions for the removal and disposal of landmines, explosive remnants of war (ERW) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In response to threats encountered in ...
- Germany allocates EUR 200,000 to HALO Trust for mine clearance in Balakliya
November 10, 2017
The German Federal Government allocates EUR 200,000 to the HALO Trust non-governmental mine clearance organization for the demining of the territory following explosions of ammunition in Balakliya (Kharkiv region) in March this year. “The Federal Government promotes the clearance of the accident site in Balakliya from unexploded ordnance. It supports the world’s largest mine clearance organization, ...
- British ‘Hurt Locker’ explosives expert is killed while clearing ISIS bombs in Syria
October 28, 2017
A British bomb disposal expert has reportedly been killed clearing ISIS explosives in Syria where he was working to make homes safe for families. Former Lance Corporal Chris Harris, 41, was in newly liberated Raqqa when it is believed he triggered a device linked to infra-red sensors. Mr Harris, of Hockley, Essex, married wife Claudie, 34, in August and yesterday she ...
- Russian engineers destroy 1,500 explosives in major Deir ez-Zor demining operation
September 28, 2017
Russian sappers equipped with the latest demining technology have managed to find and destroy over 1,500 explosives since they began clearing the streets of Deir ez-Zor as the Syrian Army continues clearing the city and surrounds from remaining ISIS terrorists. A group of 170 mine clearance specialists were sent to the Syrian city shortly after the ...
- It could take more than a decade to clear Mosul of explosives, U.S. officials say
July 13, 2017
After nine months of vicious street-to-street fighting to drive the Islamic State out of Mosul, it could take many years more to fully remove explosives and other munitions from one of Iraq’s most populous cities, U.S. State Department officials said. “When I look around the world in some ways there’s nothing like Mosul that we’ve encountered.” said ...
- Advanced tech to help soldiers map minefields
July 10, 2017
The Indian Army‘s Directorate of Combat Engineering is set to acquire GPS-based minefield recording equipment that’ll help avoid casualties during the detection and defusion of landmines. Detection and disposing of mines has always been a risky affair for Army units operating along border areas. “The new equipment will be compatible to conditions in the Indian sub-continent,” a ...
- Demining Operator Opens Peace Museum
July 6, 2017
The government’s main demining operator will open a 2-hectare landmine museum at an undisclosed cost in Siem Reap City today, at a time when the government is struggling to attract donors for mine clearance work that is well behind schedule. The Peace Museum of Mine Action, housed at the regional headquarters of the Cambodian Mine Action ...
- ANAMA completes mine clearance in Jojug Marjanli
July 4, 2017
Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) has concluded the mine cleaning operations in the liberated Jojug Marjanli village of Jabrayil region. During the 126 days of operations, ANAMA inspected 151 houses in the village and the area where the new road will be laid out, Trend reported on July 3. ANAMA sappers discovered and defused 138,901 ...
- New Zealand pledges $1 million to help clear landmines in Colombia
June 30, 2017
New Zealand is giving $1 million in aid to help clear landmines in Colombia, one of the most mine-scarred countries in the world after a half century of war, officials said on Friday. Most of the funds will go to a two-year program by the British-based Halo Trust, a demining group, said New Zealand’s foreign minister, ...
- Sri Lanka: Batticaloa declared mine-free, but 26 mn square metres still to be cleared in 9 districts
June 25, 2017
The Batticaloa District has been declared mine free but the government still needs to clear more than 26 million square metres in nine other districts. The official certificate of clearance confirming that the district has been rid of mines was handed over to the Batticaloa District Secretary P.S.M. Charles this week by the Country Director ...
