An academic research team from The University of Manchester has teamed up with colleagues from King’s College London and the University of Zagreb to test innovative new landmine detection technologies simultaneously for the first time, at a state-of-the-art testing facility in Croatia.



The University of Manchester’s ‘Project SEMIS’ combines advanced metal detection with ground penetrating radar. Modern landmines are almost entirely plastic, limiting the effectiveness of metal detection, and the only metal components are typically just a few millimetres long. Mines are also common in former battlefields, where they are surrounded by buried shell casings, shrapnel, and other debris. Each tiny scrap of metal must therefore be treated as a potential mine, dramatically slowing down the clearance of mined areas.



Combining ground penetrating radar with metal detection has recently shown significantly improved clearance rates. Project SEMIS is designing a handheld device that can not only detect the presence of metal but also characterise it and, combined with ground penetrating radar, give an indication of whether or not an object is a threat.



They have been joined in Croatia by a team from King’s College London, who are developing a sensor which will detect the presence of explosive material underground by sending out bursts of radio waves, and a team from Zagreb, who are developing software algorithms and design modifications to overcome problems caused by mineral-rich soils which interfere with current detection technology.



All three research teams are funded by Find A Better Way, a charity founded by football legend Sir Bobby Charlton which supports landmine-related scientific research and mine education projects around the world.



The projects are expected to work especially well in tandem, and ultimately, the aim will be for all three technologies to be available for use in handheld devices for deminers working in the field. Although it will still be several years before these technologies are in common use, used in combination they could substantially accelerate the progress of demining in former war zones. With an estimated 110 million active landmines worldwide in 40% of the world’s countries and territories, total landmine removal is expected to take up to 1,000 years using current technology.