 |
|
Ground-breaking antilandmine radar
August 24, 2007A simple and inexpensive landmine detection system is on the horizon
Researchers in The Netherlands are developing a radar system that might one day see through solid earth and could be used to clear conflict zones of landmines, safely and at low cost. Writing in Inderscience's Journal of Design Research, the team explains how the new technology, with further industrial development, could eventually make vast tracts of land around the globe safe once more.
Landmines were first used widely during World War II and continue to represent a significant threat to life and limb in areas afflicted by war. Originally, landmines were used to protect strategic areas such as borders, camps or important bridges and to restrict the movement of enemy forces. The use of landmines has spread to countless national conflicts and they are now commonly used by terrorist and other organizations against civilians and rivals. This has led to a major proliferation of landmines in many areas beyond conventional military conflict zones.
In the absence of records, the low cost of landmines and the vast areas that have been polluted with them due to aerial distribution, clearing landmines has become and increasingly frustrating and hazardous task.
A single landmine might cost $1, but once in the ground locating it and making it safe can cost up to $1000. According to P. van Genderen and A.G. Yarovoy in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Delft University of Technology, this cost is prohibitive in most areas affected by landmine use and so a cheaper solution is needed. The researchers also point out that a detection system that does not distinguish between landmines and other buried objects is not viable.
The researchers explain that innovative technologies such as multi-hyper spectral sensors, passive millimeter wave detectors, and charged particle detection could be effective, but are likely to be very costly and complicated to use. Inexpensive methods such as conventional metal detectors and probing of the ground by a human operator are prone to serious error with major repercussions for the operators.
They have now turned to ultra-wideband radar as having the potential to be much easier to operate than the sophisticated technology but be just as effective and crucially far less expensive. The team has now developed a prototype system that successfully detects model landmines in a test environment. The detection rate is always offset by the false alarm rate, the researchers explain. The real step forward can be made if this balance can be made more favorable. Further work and development is now needed to shift the balance between detection rate and false alarm rate.
Inderscience Publishers
In the absence of records, the low cost of landmines and the vast areas that have been polluted with them due to aerial distribution, clearing landmines has become and increasingly frustrating and hazardous task.
A single landmine might cost $1, but once in the ground locating it and making it safe can cost up to $1000. According to P. van Genderen and A.G. Yarovoy in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Delft University of Technology, this cost is prohibitive in most areas affected by landmine use and so a cheaper solution is needed. The researchers also point out that a detection system that does not distinguish between landmines and other buried objects is not viable.
The researchers explain that innovative technologies such as multi-hyper spectral sensors, passive millimeter wave detectors, and charged particle detection could be effective, but are likely to be very costly and complicated to use. Inexpensive methods such as conventional metal detectors and probing of the ground by a human operator are prone to serious error with major repercussions for the operators.
They have now turned to ultra-wideband radar as having the potential to be much easier to operate than the sophisticated technology but be just as effective and crucially far less expensive. The team has now developed a prototype system that successfully detects model landmines in a test environment. The detection rate is always offset by the false alarm rate, the researchers explain. The real step forward can be made if this balance can be made more favorable. Further work and development is now needed to shift the balance between detection rate and false alarm rate.
Inderscience Publishers
Landmines Current Events and Landmines News RSSTropical Soils Impede Landmine Detection
Use of a metal detector is the most common technique when searching for landmines, which litter the soil in approximately 90 countries around the world. Many of these countries are located in the tropics where intensively weathered soils are prevalent.
Biosensor sniffs out explosives
Temple University School of Medicine researchers have developed a new biosensor that sniffs out explosives and could one day be used to detect landmines and deadly agents, such as sarin gas, according to a paper in the June issue of Nature Chemical Biology.
Cranfield leads development of next generation anti-land mine device
UK-based humanitarian de-mining specialists Disarmco have teamed up with ordnance and explosives experts at Cranfield University at Shrivenham to develop the next generation of anti-land mine device. The anti-landmine invention - codenamed 'Dragon' -is the subject of a European patent application and is cheaper, faster and quicker than many existing alternatives.
Tobacco should be excluded from free trade agreement
Tobacco should be excluded from free trade agreements to protect health, argue researchers in this week's BMJ. Their call comes in the week that the European Union and the South American trading bloc Mercosur will continue negotiations towards a free trade agreement. Every day, doctors see the deadly effects of tobacco, write the authors. While trade liberalisation can bring benefits, free trade in tobacco leads to increased consumption. This inevitably leads to more tobacco related illness and death. Excluding tobacco from free trade agreements would protect health. It is compatible with international law, which exempts other harmful products such as landmines, and World Trade Organisation
Landmine blitzing
Unexploded anti-personnel landmines litter the border between Croatia and what was once Yugoslavia. The mine-infested area spans more or less half of the country and roughly 1,700 km2 of minefields are left to clear. EUREKA's first foray into anti-personnel landmine technology, the ORACLE project has developed a rugged tractor for clearing mines and unexploded shells from agricultural land. Adapted from a conventional forestry vehicle, the ORACLE system is cheap, quick, reliable - and safe. Belgian, Croatian and Swedish partner companies developed the heavily armoured tracked loader to clear up to 20,000 square metres of land an hour. It uses carbide metal rods spinning at up to 200 revoluti
Turning wind turbines into rain-making machines
MAKING rain sounds outlandish, and maybe it is. But audacious ideas are nothing new to Stephen Salter. If the wave-power pioneer thinks he can solve the world`s worsening water shortage by turning wind turbines into rain-making machines, there are plenty of people who`ll listen to him. Salter, an engineer at the University of Edinburgh, became famous in the 1970s for inventing the "nodding duck" wave-power device, which spawned many of the wave-power designs now under development and in trials. He`s even tried his hand at designing a whirling remote-controlled machine to detonate landmines. At an international marine conference in Crete last w
Call To Action To Tackle Global Health Impact Of Child Prostitution (p 1417)
Call To Action To Tackle Global Health Impact Of Child ProstitutionAuthors of a review article in this week's issue of THE LANCET are calling on health professionals to join forces with NGOs, governments, and UN agencies to establish an international campaign against child prostitution. Brian Willis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Barry Levy from Tufts University, USA, highlight how child prostitution has become a significant global problem that has yet to receive appropriate medical and public-health attention. Worldwide, an estimated 1 million children are forced into prostitution every year, and the total number of prostituted children is thought to be around 10 m
New hope for landmine detection
The first steps in a new method of detecting landmines by determining the presence of tiny quantities of the explosive TNT (trinitrotoluene) are described in research published today in the Institute of Physics publication Journal of Physics D. Markus Nolte, Alexei Privalov and Franz Fujara of Darmstadt Technical University in Germany, together with Jurgen Altmann of Dortmund University and Vladimir Anferov from the Kalingrad State University in Russia, describe in the journal how they have devised a new way of detecting the nitrogen present in TNT so that small quantities of the explosive can be detected from a distance.
More Landmines Current Events and Landmines News Articles
 | Landmines in the Path of the Believer: Avoiding the Hidden Dangers by Charles F. Stanley Dr. Charles Stanley identifies nine destructive temptations and gives Christians the hope and skills they need to live an abundant and obedient life. When you are in the heat of spiritual battle, it does not take long to realize that Satan will do anything to prevent you from becoming the person God has planned. However, he does not always employ an all-out frontal assault. Sometimes the danger... |
 | Profits You Can Trust: Spotting and Surviving Accounting Landmines by David Sherman, David Young, Harris Collingwood |
 | The Devil's Gardens: A History of Landmines by Lydia Monin, Andrew Gallimore The use of landmines began on the battlefields of two world wars, gathered momentum in Korea and Vietnam, then spread like wildfire throughout the developing world. This important new book traces the history of what has become a global humanitarian crisis. It is the story of the development and proliferation of a weapon of terror, of suffering and devastation, and of a worldwide crusade to put an... |
 | Mine Action After Diana: Progress in the Struggle Against Landmines by Stuart Maslen In 1997, many countries came together to pledge $500 million over five years to 'mine action' programmes to tackle the destruction caused by landmines. This book explores how effectively that money has been spent. Is the world a safer place as a result of the ban? Has international mine action been a success? What lessons have been learnt along the way? What are the challenges for the future? In... |
| Engaging Non-State Actors in a Landmine Ban by Campaign to Ban Landmines Full Conference Proceedings from the "Engaging Non-State Actors in a Landmine Ban, A Pioneering Conference," held in Geneva in March 2000. Attended by 30 countries, ways of engaging armed opposition groups in the effort to eradicate landmines were... | |
 | Banning Landmines: Disarmament, Citizen Diplomacy, and Human Security by Jody Williams Banning Landmines: Disarmament, Citizen Diplomacy, and Human Security looks at accomplishments and setbacks in the crucial first decade of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Edited by Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams and two other long-time leaders of the mine ban movement, Stephen Goose and Mary Wareham, this book features contributions by grassroots activists, diplomatic negotiators, mine survivors,... |
 | Alternatives for Landmine Detection by Jacqueline A. MacDonald At the rate that government and nongovernmental organizations are clearing existing landmines, it will take 450-500 years to rid the world of them. Concerned about the slow pace of demining, the Office of Science and Technology asked RAND to assess potential innovative technologies being explored and to project what funding would be required to foster the development of the more promising ones.... |
| Landmines in the Path of the Believer (Christian Softcover Originals) by Charles F. Stanley | |
 | Million Dollar Mistakes: Steering Your Music Career Clear of Lies, Cons, Catastrophes, and Landmines by Moses Avalon Everyone knows the success stories of the music industry — how Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" blew the roof off and how Clive Davis helped orchestrate Santana’s stunning comeback. Million-Dollar Mistakes presents the stories of when people in the music business were dead wrong. The book details some of the most expensive mistakes ever made by artists, as well as by the record executives,... |
 | Landmines and Unexploded Ordnance: A Resource Book by Rae McGrath Written by a Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate who is one of the leading voices in the anti-landmines campaign, this timely book is a comprehensive, practical guide to landmines and unexploded ordnance.... |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |