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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

#61

Post by TeMPOraL »

_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

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#62

Post by digitalengineer »

peteretep wrote: post #52
digitalengineer wrote: post #18

How about a bio-solution? A fast-growing 1-year non-reproductive plant or weed that's engineered to grows best (or not grow) around old explosive chemicals? I imagine dropping seeds from a plane around a (old) minefield. After a few months you'll see plants popping up and you'll know that's where the old mines are.

Maybe you were thinking of: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3437019.stm

Yes! "Plants... are said to turn from green to red when they come in contact with explosives in the soil. " Read it some time ago and thought it was brilliant.

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#63

Post by coldarchon »

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…

Afghanistan is not exactly flat land and mines are not exactly placed in the open field and this tool is not exactly as heuristic as my robot vacuum cleaner and this is not exactly anywhere a valuable addition because even after 100 years you cannot be sure they cleaned an area 100 percent.

I was an SFOR-soldier in Yugoslavia and I saw several crippled kids sitting next to a football field watching other children play in tears while others were reading superman comics which informed them about not touching mines and how they look like. They deserve hope and not a joke ..

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#64

Post by _djo_ »

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

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.

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#65

Post by Deestan »

_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…

> civilian demining which demands a 99% clearance rate.

Is that an actual official classification? It seems a bit low. "There were 1000 mines here, and we found 990 of them. Good enough, I say. Move in, and bring your kids!"

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#68

Post by Joeboy »

That looks pretty cool. I don't think it's correct to advertise it as "clearing" minefields though. It looks like a useful tool for identifying them, and making them a bit less miney.

My understanding is that manual, low-tech demining is not actually that dangerous. It requires some training and caution, but generally speaking anti-personnel mines aren't likely to do you much damage if approached carefully from the right angle.

Whereas the approach of getting machines to jump up and down randomly is expensive, likely to lead to a false sense of security and may even cause mines to get pushed into positions that make them more dangerous.

You could get a lot of Afghan workers enthusiastically doing low-tech demining for not that much money. Every now and again one of them would lose a finger or two but maybe that's not such a bad outcome considering the alternatives. People tend to get much more excited about expensive, higher tech solutions because they're sexier and the people who develop them (often the same people that made the mines in the first place) are better at selling them.

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#69

Post by _djo_ »

Deestan wrote: post #65
_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…

> civilian demining which demands a 99% clearance rate. Is that an actual official classification? It seems a bit low. "There were 1000 mines here, and we found 990 of them. Good enough, I say. Move in, and bring your kids!"

The actual figure is 99.6%.[0] That's the statistical confidence level for clearance required of contractors and to declare an area safe, because it's impossible to prove beyond any doubt that there is no longer a single mine left in an area. Demining teams still aim for 100% though.

For instance, Mechem's sniffer dogs have displayed a 90% success rate on target filters, so statistically having three dogs per team perform cross-checking paths on the field should produce the 99.6% confidence level for the type of mines the dogs can detect.

[0]http://www.un.org/Depts/dha/mct/rptwg2.htm

Re: Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines

#70

Post by nfg »

nakkiel wrote: post #60
Cass wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are people supposed to shear those sheep, or take care of them during lambing/when they're sick, or to feed or water them, if they can't actually enter the pen? It seems to me that sheep penned in a land mine field would either be useless, because you couldn't go near them, or worse than useless, because they'd be a temptation to enter the dangerous area.

Turns out sheep's will run toward whoever takes care of them.

I take it you've never worked with sheep on a farm then...?!
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