Drones for demining project

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Robin Collins

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Jun 23, 2022, 9:15:11 AM6/23/22
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Helpful, not helpful? Your thoughts.

Robin

Canadian-made drones show promising new technology for demining efforts in Ukraine

ANTON SKYBA
DMYTRIVKA, UKRAINE
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED JUNE 17, 2022UPDATED JUNE 20, 2022

A drone from Canadian company DraganFly takes off to scan a demonstration mine field using a magnetometer, in Dmytrivka, Ukraine, on June 16.ANTON SKYBA/THE GLOBE AND MAIL


A massive Canadian-made drone rose into the sky over a village near Kyiv on Thursday, and began to scan the ground below for mines and other unexploded ordnance, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches its fifth month.

Though the drone’s mission was only a demonstration flight intended to introduce a promising new demining technology, the ground below in Dmytrivka was designed to look as dangerous as possible.

“We have buried 12 different explosive pieces here, to replicate a real battlefield,” said Colonel Yury Tsekeniuk, who heads a unit of Kyiv combat engineers, also known as sappers.

The first drone of two flew for only a few minutes and used a magnetometer to scan magnetic fields in the area, as well as what lay beneath the terrain. After it landed, another unmanned aerial vehicle took off to go over the same ground with a device that scans non-metal fragments for possible explosives buried in the soil.

The collected data was then transferred to Cloud storage, so that artificial intelligence could begin mapping the area – providing information that will allow the sappers to speed up their dangerous work by telling them where to go, what to look for and where not to step.

Drones like these, produced by Saskatoon-based Draganfly, can map a hectare of land in an hour – accelerating work that can take weeks if done by hand, while also eliminating many of the risks that sappers face.

Col. Tsekeniuk has been defusing unexploded remnants for eight years – since the start of the years-long conflict in eastern Ukraine that preceded Russia’s invasion of the country in late February. He said he wouldn’t know how effective the drones were until he saw the map they produced – a process that was expected to take several days.

The drones can map a hectare of land in an hour.ANTON SKYBA/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

“But it sounds attractive,” he said, “because we don’t need to put people in danger before sending in sappers.”

Draganfly chief executive Cameron Chell brought his team to the Kyiv region to see if they could help ease the challenge of demining the large areas of Ukraine that are also littered with other explosives after more than 100 days of war.

Mr. Chell, who has been operating commercial and rescue drones for more than two decades, is excited about applying his expertise to Ukraine.

“We think we can speed up the demining process by about 40 per cent, which is really important, because in Azerbaijan, they have 40,000 square kilometres and it took 21 years to demine it,” he said, referring to the aftermath of the 1990s war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a conflict that reignited in 2020.

There is no end in sight to Russia’s war against Ukraine and the challenge posed by unexploded ordnance is already several times larger. “As I understand it here, there’s already 160,000 square kilometres to demine, so in theory it can take from 60 to 80 years” without the use of drones, Mr. Chell said.

Oleg Bondarenko, an MP who heads the Ukrainian parliament’s committee on environmental and natural resources policy, estimated that half of the country was contaminated to some degree by explosive ordnance.

DraganFly chief executive officer Cameron Chell says demining efforts in Ukraine could 'take from 60 to 80 years' without the use of drones.ANTON SKYBA/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Draganfly was invited to Ukraine by Yellow-Blue Charitable Foundation, a collective of volunteers that liaises with international business interested in supporting Ukraine.

“It is a crazy cost to demine Ukraine, in money and resources,” said Sergey Koshman, a board member of Yellow-Blue Charitable Foundation. “The idea is to bring the best technologies to Ukraine, otherwise it would take us dozens of years to do demining here.”

Draganfly’s drones are already used by law enforcement and rescue services in Canada and the United States. For example, the Ontario Provincial Police uses the UAVs to collect evidence for investigations and in 2014, a drone was credited with saving hikers lost in a heavily wooded area in Nova Scotia.

The company, which Mr. Chell said has about 60 employees, went public last year and its shares are traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Private donors in Canada and the United States have backed the Ukraine demining work with approximately US$500,000, Mr. Chell said, and there’s an expectation that other funding will follow if and when the project launches full-scale work in the country.

Mr. Chell said that he believed his technology could reduce the cost of mapping to about US$200 a hectare – which could help speed the clearance of agricultural fields that produce wheat and corn. Getting Ukrainian grain to market as soon as possible is crucial, not only to Ukrainian farmers, but to the global food supply, he said.

“We are not focused on the cost, we are focused on the saving. Whatever the cost is, it’s inconsequential to helping bring the economy back and keeping people safe.”

Robert Keeley

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Jun 23, 2022, 10:12:38 AM6/23/22
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Yeah well…

We’ve been promised this for decades.

Setting aside the ‘gee-whizz’ element of drones it’s all about probability of detection and false alarm rates, same as any detector. It needs a full double-blind test to prove its efficacy.

Bob



On 23 Jun 2022, at 15:15, Robin Collins <robi...@gmail.com> wrote:


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Rae McGrath

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Jun 23, 2022, 10:33:09 AM6/23/22
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I cannot but recall the Branson and QinetiQ GPR on a Virgin balloon big idea ... Whatever happened to that idea? R


From: demi...@googlegroups.com <demi...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Robert Keeley <rkconsu...@gmail.com>
Sent: 23 June 2022 15:12
To: demi...@googlegroups.com <demi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [HD] Drones for demining project
 

Robert Keeley

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Jun 23, 2022, 10:35:07 AM6/23/22
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It was basically nothing more than a PR stunt.

A balloon with a lot of prototype sensor stuff hung under it for testing. None of which ever came to market. 



On 23 Jun 2022, at 16:33, Rae McGrath <raemc...@hotmail.com> wrote:



Rae McGrath

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Jun 23, 2022, 11:52:58 AM6/23/22
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It was PR for Qinetiq, but for Branson it was an attempt to get government funding for his balloons - he wanted his expensive hobby underwritten by the public - the global landmines crisis was simply a convenient vehicle.

Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2022 3:35:02 PM

Robert Keeley

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Jun 23, 2022, 12:02:33 PM6/23/22
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I had to host them when they came to Cambodia.

The QinetiQ bods were very naïve and just wanted a test platform to test their gear.

The Mineseeker bloke on the other hand…was trying to sell the balloon anyway he could and was a bit put out when I told him a helicopter was half the price…



On 23 Jun 2022, at 17:53, Rae McGrath <raemc...@hotmail.com> wrote:

 It was PR for Qinetiq, but for Branson it was an attempt to get government funding for his balloons - he wanted his expensive hobby underwritten by the public - the global landmines crisis was simply a convenient vehicle.

Rae McGrath

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Jun 23, 2022, 1:14:21 PM6/23/22
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The TV put me up to argue against Branson ... I explained the total impracticality of flying balloons over minefields and the costs of supporting such ridiculous projects. Then I challenged their repeated claims that it was a 'mine clearance' initiative - even if it worked as a viable and cost-effective means to identify the location of mines it was, at best, simply a very expensive survey - clearance teams would still be required to detect the mines and destroy them. Branson responded along the lines that I was just a typical cynic who automatically responded negatively to the groundbreaking ideas of entrepreneurs like himself. The producer, whose name I've forgotten, was swooning over Brandon's genius and slanted the report that way.
I have it all filed somewhere in the 'bollocks mine action ideas by people who imagined we had never thought about the clearance options' ... it's a thick file, in every sense! R


Sent: 23 June 2022 17:02

Robin Collins

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Jun 24, 2022, 8:41:46 AM6/24/22
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Fwd from Russell Gasser

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Russell Gasser <russel...@mac.com>
Date: Fri., Jun. 24, 2022, 3:44 a.m.


Drones are a transport mechanism that can be used for a sensor. Branson’s airship was in the end a total waste of money that was never used in earnest for demining (or very much else) - though I think the people involved believed in what they were doing. As was the Schiebel cam-copter a few years earlier with a very similar humanitarian funding justification. Both were projects for which I was Project Officer for the part that the European Commission funded. Schiebel did sell cam-copters and they were a success for some purposes, but never for humanitarian demining (unless I have overlooked it, in which case please correct me).

The drone is a mounting for the sensor. The stand-off sensor has to work in the first place, the drone merely gets it to a different place. It is simple enough to test a sensor before adding the drone. And easy enough to test the drone with a weight equivalent to the sensor attached.

Using a magnetometer to detect mines is what the caption says. That is enough to show it is either (a) wrongly reported, (b) being done by people who know insufficient about demining or (c) a publicity stunt or con trick.

Magnetometers are for UXO, usually deep UXO. Not mines. A drone isn’t needed for deep UXO as you can walk on the ground above it. Or if the ground is mined then you need to clear the mines first and use a hand-held magnetometer for the UXO as demining proceeds.

GPR by itself is either not used for demining, or not very much used. Adding it to a drone doesn’t make it work better - the stand-off makes it harder and GPR does not pass easily through vegetation or wet clay soil. GPR can be used for target differentiation between scrap metal and low-metal mines after detection by a metal detector.

Drones, however, are really good at taking a look at land that is suspected, both close up and also a good high-level overview, or at objects that are possible IEDs or UXO or mines. Normal, off the shelf, everyday Chinese made camera drones. Either the hovering type, or fixed wing mini-aircraft. They can give a lot of good images to help plan access, clearance, land release etc. Current technology, off the shelf. Really useful and a good idea.

 Why are people trying to get the elusive and distant holy grail of the tie up between drones and stand-off sensors ? Stand-off detection is extremely tricky in the first place and barely proven for humanitarian use - though clearly good for military use when fast non-contact detection at well under 100% success rate is very useful in combat. At this stage it is really still at the stage of a publicity event by people who are usually well meaning but haven't understood the problem. Doubtless the generous funding from well-intentioned donors will continue - and it isn’t limited to drones, the Dervish was another example.

Just my ten cents…

Russell.

Robert Keeley

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Jun 24, 2022, 8:43:51 AM6/24/22
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Spot on :)

Sent from my iPhone

On 24 Jun 2022, at 14:41, Robin Collins <robi...@gmail.com> wrote:



Rae McGrath

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Jun 24, 2022, 9:14:37 AM6/24/22
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All true Russell. The reason the public discussion becomes confused is largely because you have two distinct technologies - a (potential) platform and a detection tool; often manufactured by different companies. Once that information gets in the hands of the sales and PR teams the confusion begins - the drone manufacturer (let's leave Branson and his hobby aside - that was a pretty cynical and costly stunt) sees the market value of being linked to HMA, while the detector company equally sees the marketing advantage of matching their product with cutting edge technology - and from that point it's easy for the hype to get out of hand. Of course no-one would be interested in comparing the drone to the truck that carries the demining teams and their detectors to the minefield and it wouldn't improve sales. PR and HR have long been the sectors of which I am, at best, distrustful. R

Sent: 24 June 2022 13:43

To: demi...@googlegroups.com <demi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [HD] Drones for demining project
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