3D Technology To Uncover Hidden Landmines

3D Technology To Uncover Hidden Landmines

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It is estimated there are 110 million landmines buried across the world, with the potential to kill and maim innocent men, women, and children for decades to come. Yet landmine detection techniques have barely changed since the Second World War. The UN estimates that, using current technology, it would take more than 1,100 years to clear the estimated 110 million landmines situated in seventy countries. Researchers are exploring new landmine detection technologies.

The University of Bath is developing an innovative new camera system capable of detecting landmines underground, so reports HomeLand Security News Wire, and will explore how advanced apacitive/inductive camera technology could be used to locate landmines concealed underground.

The fact that modern day landmines are usually plastic instead of metal makes detection extremely difficult. In addition to facing the technological challenges, the landmine problem is also an economic one: a landmine which costs £2 to purchase can cost between £120-£600 to find and clear, not to mention the immeasurable cost on human life. University of Bath’s Dr. Manuchehr Soleimani will lead the three-year, £100,000 research project to develop technology that can differentiate between images of plastic and metallic elements within a single device, at depths of up to 10 cm underground on varied terrain.

To be successful, the technology needs to be affordable, lightweight, and integrated within a robot alongside other technologies, allowing it to identify the plethora of different devices across a variety of locations.

Soleimani, associate professor at U Bath’s Department of Electronic &Electrical Engineering and leader of the Engineering Tomography Lab(ETL), commented: “Currently, manual metal detectors sweep minefields in a slow and time-consuming process which cannot detect non-metallic landmines. We aim to develop an integrated technology to detect both metallic and non-metallic landmines and to improve the speed and reliability of this process.”

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