The current opinion on the use of robots for landmine detection

Abstract

Anti-Personal landmines are a significant barrier to economic and social development in a number of countries. Several sensors have been developed but each one will probably have to find, if it exists, a specific area of applicability, determined by technological as well as economical or even social factors, and possibly other sensors to work with using some form of sensor fusion. A significant issue concerns the safety of the deminer. For every 5000 mines removed, one deminer is killed. The design of an accurate sensor may reduce the amount of time needed to determine whether a landmine exists, but does not increase the safety of the deminer. Since the safety issues during the eradication process are of great concern, the use and integration of cheap and simple robots and sensors in humanitarian demining has been raised. This removes the deminer from close contact with mines. This paper is concerned mainly with the work that has been done in the area of robotics and landmine detection, the problems involved, the issues that have been overlooked and the future of robots in the field.