scientists of The United States has developed technology that can detect landmines from long distances with high precision, potentially reducing the risk of clearing mines from current and former conflict zones. The technology, known as Laser Multibeam Differential Interferometer Sensor (RAMDIS), works by shining a laser onto the ground to reveal suspected threats.
There are currently more than 110 million landmines Landmines are buried all over the world, and there will be casualties due to landmines by 2023 5,700 people84% of the victims were civilians, half of them children. According to the United Nations, landmines threaten life in more than 70 countries.
Landmines can cost as little as $3 to create, but can cost up to $1,000 to remove. Mine clearance typically relies on humans finding mines with hand-held metal detectors, which is dangerous, time-consuming, and largely ineffective when searching for plastic mines.
In response, US researchers have developed an indirect landmine detection technique that can detect both metal and plastic landmines. Ramdis works by sending vibrations into the ground and simultaneously scanning the area with a laser beam. Like the soil itself, the materials beneath the earth vibrate at different frequencies. These differences are detected by the laser when it is reflected back to the emitter. The Lambdis system then produces images that visualize these vibrations and their locations in different colors, creating a map of what is buried in the soil.
The technology was developed by a team led by Vyacheslav Aranchuk, a laser sensing expert at the University of Mississippi. Importantly, it can detect mines from a distance and can be mounted on mobile vehicles to assist in scanning large areas.
“As long as conflicts continue, the number of landmines will continue to increase. This technology will be useful not only for military use in ongoing conflicts, but also for humanitarian operations after conflicts end,” Aranczuk said. Masu.
Researchers continue to develop the system. Previous versions of Lambdis emitted 30 laser beams in a line, but the latest version emits them in a 34 x 23 matrix, allowing a wider range of vibrations to be visualized.
Conventional metal detectors used for demining detect all kinds of metal objects, so it was not uncommon for them to mistakenly detect objects other than landmines. An alternative demining solution, ground-penetrating radar, emits high-frequency electromagnetic waves into the ground, but has the disadvantage of being sensitive to soil conditions. In comparison, Lambdis produces fewer false positives.
According to the research team, this technology can be used not only for landmine detection but also for landmine evaluation. Civil engineering structures such as bridges Structural integrity or damage. In the future, it may also be used to analyze products in the automotive and aerospace industries, and even in the medical imaging field. Next, the team plans to evaluate Ramdis’ performance under different soil conditions and when hunting other types of buried objects.
This story was originally wired japan Translated from Japanese.
