Landmine clearing robot – interview
"Let's
be honest here, over the years the way that we remove landmines from
the ground has hardly changed. But it has to." The words of Richard Yim, CEO and founder of Demine Robotics, are hard-hitting, especially when we consider that over 500,000 mines were destroyed worldwide in 2017. Seeing that current methods were putting human life at risk, and with approximately 110 million mines left worldwide, Yim realised that there was a better way of doing things.
"When
a landmine is detected, deminers have to go to the field and dig out
those explosive by hand, with just a small trowel and other gardening
tools," Yim explains. "Imagine being asked to dig out an explosive that
can kill you with just a trowel. As a certified deminer myself, I know
the mental and physical requirements to do the job: the heavy body
armour weighs you down and the face mask blocks airflow, which can make
you hyperventilate. Picture doing all that in 35–40°C heat in Cambodia,
on your knees for 15 to 30 minutes at a time. It needs to change."
Yim
decided to act upon that last statement. The fuel to his fire came from
a childhood in Cambodia, where landmines were a severe societal issue,
and a personal tragedy that brought the reality of the risk to the
forefront of his life.
"In
the early 2000s, I lost my aunt to a landmine accident," he explains.
"She was clearing her land to grow crops when it happened. My dad was
doing the same thing in his land beside hers. It was hard on the entire
family and it was when I realised I wanted to do something to help to
solve this problem. I didn't know what I could do to help at the time,
but I was determined to do something to make a difference."
Yim
moved to Canada when he was 13-years-old and went on to study
mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo. It was seeing a
new, technology-enriched culture that opened his mind to alternative
methods of demining.
"Demine
Robotics started as a final year design project in 2015, when me and a
group of friends got together to work on the issue of demining," Yim
recounts. "By 2016, we were able to build a first cheap prototype that
can cut and melt out explosives. Our professor was really encouraged by
our work and pushed us to build a company around it. So I did, in
January, 2016. We've since been building the solution to excavate
landmines and other explosives."
The
most developed product from Yim's team, originally called The Landmine
Boys, is Jevit, which means 'life, in Khmer, the official language in
Cambodia. Jevit is the size of a lawnmower and is able to unearth
anti-personnel mines that lie 3–5cm below the ground in just three
minutes. The unmanned robot uses a mechanical penetration arm to lift
the mine out of the ground without instigating the detonation trigger.
Once above the surface, the mine can be safely defused.
Jevit
can be controlled from up to 300m away, meaning that nobody needs to
risk their lives by getting too close to a danger zone. Even if
something does go wrong, the bot is protected by explosive-proof metal
plating. It can handle rugged terrain and, at only 600kg in weight, it
can be easily transported.
Whilst
the idea of Demine Robotics was born and raised in Canada, Yim returned
home in 2017 to build and test Jevit in Cambodia. He's worked with a
number of organisations, including Golden West Humanitarian Foundation
and UN Peacekeeping Forces in Cambodia (NPMEC), to put the prototype to
the test. So far, it's been a success.
"Our
robot works," Yim states. "We tested Jevit under the observation
against conditions set by NPMEC and successfully dug out landmines in
their field without issues. Now, the next step is to improve the
reliability, so we can put the machine into use. Our aim is to build
solutions to clear indiscriminate weapons such as landmines, cluster
munitions and improvised explosive devices. We want to save lives around
the world."
By
2020, Demine Robotics hope to expand the use of Jevit to neighbouring
countries, before a global expansion in 2025. The company is currently
fundraising via Kickstarter and hope to raise enough to fine-tune Jevit whilst developing a new model.
According
to Yim, his mother took him to Canada in 2006 to "have the education
and opportunities to make a mark on the world." 13 years later, he's
certainly on the path to doing just that.
Source: https://www.redbull.com/in-en/demine-robotics-landmine-clearing-bot
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