INTRODUCTION
The United Nations on Mine Action (UNMAS) assesses that more than 100 million mines pose significant hazards in more than 68 countries around the world. They are lethal remnants from often forgotten armed conflicts during the last century. Landmines kill about 26,000 persons every year and maim even more, leaving behind dismembered victims requiring extensive healthcare and rehabilitation.
The detection of all forms of dangerous battlefield debris such as landmines are vital prerequisites for any region to recover from their impact. Thermal cameras in combination with UAVs are becoming a powerful solution for speeding up this task.
Background
The Humanitarian Engineering Research Group collaborates with Shield Association, 
a civil society organization founded on the Lebanese territories committed to working in the various humanitarian sectors. We aim to validate and create an open-source solution for detecting landmines using low-cost thermal cameras and UAVs, automating the identification of problematic spots (Figures below).
UT-VU COALITION GRANT
In April 2024, UT-VU Coalition Responsible Sociaties granted 40k€ for supporting the project "Enhancing Landmines Detection using UAVs with Thermal Imaging and Simulation" to investigate the potential of thermal cameras and hyperspectral cameras for the detection of PLA and metal landmines in sand and clay-type soils. It is a collaboration between the Engineering Technology (ET) Faculty - Design, Production and Management Department, the Faculty Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) - UAV Center of the UT and the Physics and Astronomy Department of VU. The project has a duration of 1 year and it divided in 3 main phases:
- Simulation of capabilities of thermal and hyperspectral cameras using Comsol;
- Testing and validating the results of the simulation in the fields with cameras and UAVs for detecting landmines replicas;
- Automatisation of the detection algorithm for discerning between real landmines and false positive objects using AI-based methods.
EXPECTED RESULTS
The project aims to provide an evidence-based sustainable, scalable and affordable prototype able to support humanitarian organisations involved in the reclamation of post& conflicts territories.
TIMELINE
May-June 2024 – initial study; July-August 2024 – Simulation and Design of the system; Sep-Nov 2024 – Data Acquisition; Dec 2024-March 2025 – Final Test and Dissemination Phase; April 2025 – Closing and Reporting.
PROJECT MEMBERS
The project is part of the BSc thesis in Mechanical Engineering of Benjamin O'Regan, Reines Jaunarajs, Robin Beavers and Jelte de Vries. The plastic (PLA) landmines are produced by the Fraunhofer Innovation Platform. The UAVs are provided by the Drone Team Twente.
INFORMATION
For more information: Dr. Alberto Martinetti (a.martinetti@utwente.nl)