Land mines could become a thing of the past, at least that's the aim of a team that has created a drone it hopes will put an end to the destructive device which still kills and maims more than 20,000 people each year.
Developed by the Mine Kafon Foundation, the drone maps, detects and detonates land mines from a safe distance.
The Mine Kafon Drone is an airborne demining system developed with the aim to clear all land mines around the world in less than 10 years.
The project aims to clear the millions of land mines leftover from past conflicts, therefore aiming to greatly reduce the number of people maimed and killed by them throughout the world each year.
The Mine Kafron Drone is well equipped for its mission to rid the world of land mines, with three models of drones with separate roles working in unison as they perform their role.
How the drones detect and destroy land mines
The first drone flies over a suspected hazardous area while mapping a 3D area using a zigzag pattern.
The second drone hovers just mere centimetres over the ground as it traces over the area using a robotic metal detecting arm to detect mines.
After the metal detecting drone geotags the land mines, a third and final drone, equipped with a robotic gripping arm, places a small detonator near the detected mines and then detonates it from a safe distance.
The Mine Kafron Drone is believed to be up to 20 times faster and 200 times cheaper than traditional demining techniques such as the use of animals, humans and vehicles, which all pose serious safety risks.
The Mine Kafon Foundation behind the fundraising for the demining drone is an R&D organisation based in the Netherlands, and is the brainchild of Afghani brothers Massoud and Mahmud Hassani.
Both experienced the horrors and effects of land mines from an early age growing up in war-torn Afghanistan, traumatic experiences which helped to fuel their desire to develop a solution for a safer and more efficient solution to detect and clear the world’s land mines.
The Hassani brothers have been raising awareness about the dangers and ongoing threat of mines by giving lectures around the world and developing new approaches on how to combat landlines in different environments, which lead to the development of the Mine Kafon Drone.
So far 4,318 backers have pledged €177,456 to bring the Mine Kafon Drone project to life and help the new startup company in its aim to rid the world of land mines.
