ALDrone (Anti Landmine Drone)

Today there are 110M landmines deployed in 78 countries, including Europe, killing up to 20,000 a year. The removal of landmines is slow and manual, dangerous (for every 5000 mines cleared 1 worker is killed and 2 injured), and costly ($300–1000 to remove 1 mine). In the past 5 years less than 1000 km2 worldwide were cleared of mine. At this pace it will take 1100yrs to remove all the landmines. To meet these needs we created the Anti-Landmine Drone (ALDrone) a small, lightweight drone that detects landmines using a multispectral camera to spot the erosion created by the decomposition of the chemical elements in a mine. Our system can cover the same area in 1 day that other landmine detection methods take a month to cover, using an off-site central control station meaning no chance of explosion while locating mines, thus preventing the loss of lives. Our solution has a competitive cost to make it available to as many countries as possible.
ALDRONE uses latest satellite positioning for precise photomosaic georeferencing, and advanced algorithms to generate relevant indices to improve landmine presence probability.
Governments and humanitarian agencies across the globe have been working to eliminate these landmines and make the affected areas safe for civilians again. In 1997 the Ottawa Convention, also known as Mine Ban Treaty, came into being with the goal of ridding the world of landmines. Currently 161 countries including UN member states have signed the treaty.