Mine and Unexploded Ordinance Clearing
Multi-Sensor Aerial Solutions for Mine Detection
Mine and Unexploded Ordinance Clearing
Multi-Sensor Aerial Solutions for Mine Detection
Why is mine clearing in post-conflict regions important, and how do new technologies further security solutions?
Landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) pose persistent threats in post-conflict regions. Between 2019 and 2023 alone, Landmine Monitor recorded 13,541 civilian casualties from UXO, with approximately 44% being children. Beyond the human toll, these hidden threats paralyze economic development, rendering vast agricultural lands unusable, limiting infrastructure expansion, and deterring foreign investment. Traditional demining methods, such as manual probing, canine detection, and single-sensor technologies, are slow, hazardous, and insufficient for large-scale clearance.
How do we solve these problems?
Our project, AeroMine, offers a scalable, efficient, and safe solution by deploying autonomous drones equipped with a multi-sensor detection suite to identify and map explosive hazards across diverse terrains.
The AeroMine system integrates thermal imaging, electromagnetic sensors, sound-based detection, ground-penetrating radar, and metal detection to enhance identification accuracy across different environments and ordnance types. By combining sensor fusion with autonomous mapping capabilities, AeroMine reduces human risk, lowers operational costs, and increases the commercial viability of demining solutions.
This cross-disciplinary initiative is driven by social science insights to identify critical security and humanitarian challenges while collaborating with engineering, mathematics, and national security experts to develop effective solutions.
The project aims to advance demining technology while fostering commercially viable solutions with real-world impact, bridging academic innovation with practical application to enhance global security and economic recovery in post-conflict zones.
Conference Presentation: Landmine and UXO Countermeasures Technology: Innovative Solutions and Challenges. ISA-South Annual Meeting 2025. Lenka Halámková, Ashley Newland.
This systematic review identifies all detection technologies since the beginning of research initiatives, starting from manual detection strategies, and moving towards remote sensing and autonomous systems.
Researchers: Ashley Newland, Ori Swed, Lenka Halámková, Tim Dallas, Dimitri Volchenkov, Nathan Gill, Jake Kiedaisch, and Jan Halámek.
UXO Complete Analysis Summary: From Detector Images to Machine Learning Classification
These approaches successfully distinguish between control and metal conditions through several mechanisms.