Can a cheap AI rover save thousands of lives at risk from landmines?
CISRThis headline is brought to you by the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery (CISR) which works to support resilience and recovery in global communities affected by war and conflict.
(The National News) In 59 countries, leftover weapons of war continue to maim and kill civilians decades after a conflict has passed.
An international team at Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII) is working to change that, now entering the final phase of testing a cheap, easy-to-assemble rover that can detect unexploded landmines.
The autonomous rover is the product of 15 years of work that began in Colombia, when four young research scientists decided to tackle the issue of injury and death as a result of unexploded landmines in their home country. Felix Vega, John Pantoja and Nicolas Mora, led by Francisco Roman, worked for years developing radars capable of detecting buried objects in the ground. Over time, the work attracted engineers from Germany, Sweden and Switzerland as well.