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Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

m.good.is

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Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#121

Post by viraptor »

jontas wrote: post #42
marcamillion wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One alternative to this is to just create lanes with rope. i.e. you drive a stake in the ground on either side of the field (if that's even possible) and just create a lane where each of these rollers roll through. It won't work in every single landmine, but it can provide a 'grid' within which you know what has been cleared and what has not.

When they're handing out jobs, I sure hope I'm not the one assigned to drive these stakes and run the ropes through the minefields :)

You don't have to run them through the minefield really. You could potentially start from the side and drag two ends of the lines from the side.

May be harder with heavy / long lines / wind, but come on - we can build hanging bridges over very high canyons without anyone levitating to the other side first ;)

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#122

Post by fusiongyro »

chernevik wrote: post #102

It is depressing to me that a community as smart as this is so congratulatory of such inch-deep stuff. Oooh, landmines! Design! Shiny! But a fast perusal of the comments shows that this approach is at best problematic. And a deeper reading of the comments suggests this might very well be a dangerous anti-pattern. People, you are some of the brightest and cleverest people walking the earth. And the earth has some nast…

I upvoted this story in the hopes that it would spark some interesting discussion. Look, it has.

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#123

Post by konstruktor »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #110
_djo_ wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately Aresa Biodetection, the company behind that, stopped all research into their strain of the thale cress plant for landmine detection. I would guess that they hit a dead-end in their research, perhaps they could not make it reliable enough.

Maybe they couldn't find a farmer brave enough to seed a minefield?

And how do you irrigate and fertilize mined territory in the Afghan desert in a way that's cheaper than actual demining? Walking around with a hose or setting up an irrigation system seems too dangerous (or require partial demining to create footpaths anyway), and using any type of aircraft is expensive.

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#124

Post by mithrilskeleton »

michael_h wrote: post #93

We've updated our site to better accommodate you and the world. This means the browser you're currently using is no longer supported Web developers, please do not do this. I have no power over what browser is installed so this only ensures that I won't read your content. Give me a warning and display it anyway. My browser is one version behind the current version .

Internet Explorer 8?

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#125

Post by ygra »

mithrilskeleton wrote: post #124
michael_h wrote: post #93

We've updated our site to better accommodate you and the world. This means the browser you're currently using is no longer supported Web developers, please do not do this. I have no power over what browser is installed so this only ensures that I won't read your content. Give me a warning and display it anyway. My browser is one version behind the current version .

Internet Explorer 8?

That would be two versions behind.

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#126

Post by daniel-cussen »

Vivtek wrote: post #29
_djo_ wrote: post #13

Sadly, demining is not this simple or easy. Mine rollers and mine flails like this have been tried and tested since WWI but none have proven completely effective in finding and clearing mines. This is partially because they only work well on totally flat terrain and rapidly lose effectiveness in rougher terrain where a large number of mines are typically buried. In practice, solutions like this achieve only 50-60% ef…

The difference is this costs 40 € and can clear a couple of mines for that money. Afghanistan is not exactly rolling in cash, so any cheap improvement is a valuable addition to the toolbox - it provides a way for poor communities to do something while they're waiting for America to donate enough money to clean up their mess. My guess is that demining NGOs will be using something like this soon enough if it proves eff…

The mine roller looked to be made of three parts: the black core (expensive); the plastic plates (very cheap); and the bamboo poles (cheap as shit).

Provided the weight came mostly from the core and the core never itself got blown up, I'd saw it can clear more than a couple of land mines for the money. Perhaps, a land mine per plastic plate, and if an NGO is paying for Afghani wages, you can roll that baby all day.

Bonus: it creates a relatively "safe" path in its footstep.

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#127

Post by hughlomas »

ThomPete wrote: post #113

I was involved in a startup that tried to find landmines using a genetically engineered plant. The semen would be spread out over an area and then wherever there was landmines it would turn red. The other area would stay green. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aresa_Biodetection

What happened to the company?

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#128

Post by BostX »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #61
_djo_ wrote: post #13

Sadly, demining is not this simple or easy. Mine rollers and mine flails like this have been tried and tested since WWI but none have proven completely effective in finding and clearing mines. This is partially because they only work well on totally flat terrain and rapidly lose effectiveness in rougher terrain where a large number of mines are typically buried. In practice, solutions like this achieve only 50-60% ef…

My favourite solution so far was to use plants that turn red near mines, thus pretty much creating red circles around their location. I read about it few years ago in a science magazine, but somehow the research seems to have died. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demining#Plants

Uhm... now we just need some other plants that turn desert sand to fertile soil.

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#129

Post by haliax »

_djo_ wrote: post #13

Sadly, demining is not this simple or easy. Mine rollers and mine flails like this have been tried and tested since WWI but none have proven completely effective in finding and clearing mines. This is partially because they only work well on totally flat terrain and rapidly lose effectiveness in rougher terrain where a large number of mines are typically buried. In practice, solutions like this achieve only 50-60% ef…

If you could build a sufficiently cheap robot capable of navigating rough terrain would that do the trick?
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