Overview

Every year there are more than 24,000 people involved in landmine related incidents, of which around 10,000 are killed; 90% of these victims are ordinary civilians. Among these, 30-40% are children under 15. Not only do landmines kill people, but they also affect the agriculture and the economy. By preventing people from using roads and the like, they impede access to health care and work. Although millions of landmines have been detected and removed, it is believed that there are still about 70 million buried around the world, especially in Africa, the Middle East and south east Asia. What’s worse, clearing landmines is a high risk process. Statistically, one person dies and two people are injured from clearing every 5000 landmines. Therefore, developing a technology to assist landmine clearance to render an efficient and safe procedure, will have a profound impact.


Our Solution

To assist with the efforts, we propose an autonomous robot which can detect landmines. The benefits of this are clear: we are substituting a device for a human life. By selecting photovoltaic cells to be its primary power source it can be used in isolated regions. This description fits many of the areas afflicted with landmines, including parts of Cambodia, Iraq, and desert regions of Egypt.



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