Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA)

For the most recent HMA work see;

John Fardoulis was the UAS lead contracted on the University of Bristol, UAS for Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) and ERW survey project in 2016-2017.

In Kosovo demonstrating the value of UAVs to members of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team from the Kosovo army and specialists from MAT Kosovo. Image credit Andy Smith.

A paper written by John Fardoulis outlining the main benefits of using low cost, off-the-shelf UAS for HMA and ERW survey is available here.

The following video taken by Mobility Robotics at the Mine Action 2016 conference in Croatia provides a good baseline regarding current practices in HMA. The video shows dogs being used to detect explosives, various sensors such as metal detectors and ground penetrating radar in use, plus demonstrations of ground robotic systems, where remote-controlled flail machines are demonstrated for mechanical clearance, plus a demonstration of how mines and UXO are cleared underwater.