scientists in The US has developed technology that can detect landmines from a great distance and with high accuracy, potentially reducing the risk of demining from current and former conflict zones. Known as a Laser Multibeam Differential Interferometric Sensor, or Lambdis, the technology works by shining lasers onto the ground to detect suspected threats.
There are currently more than 110 million landmines buried around the world, and in 2023, mines killed or injured 5,700 people, with civilians accounting for 84 percent of casualties – half of them children. According to the UN, landmines threaten lives in more than 70 countries.
Mines can be made for as little as $3, but removing one can cost up to $1,000. Landmine clearance typically relies on people finding them using hand-held metal detectors, which is dangerous, time-consuming, and nearly ineffective at finding mines made of plastic.
In response, American scientists developed indirect landmine detection technology that could detect both metal and plastic mines. Lambdis works by sending vibrations into the ground while scanning the area with a laser beam. The materials in the ground will vibrate at different frequencies, just like the ground itself, and these differences are picked up by the laser as it bounces back to its emitter. The Lambdis system then generates an image that visualizes these vibrations and their location in different colors – creating a map of things buried in the soil.
The technology was developed by a team led by Vyacheslav Aranchuk, a laser sensing specialist at the University of Mississippi. Importantly, it can detect mines from a distance and can be mounted on a moving vehicle to help scan large areas.
“The number of landmines will increase as long as conflicts continue. This technology will be useful not only for military use in ongoing conflicts, but also for post-conflict humanitarian efforts,” says Aranchuk.
Researchers continue to develop the system. An earlier version of Lambdis emitted 30 laser beams in a row, but the latest version emits the beams in a 34 x 23 matrix, allowing it to visualize vibrations over a wider area.
Common metal detectors used for demining respond to any metal object, so it is not uncommon for them to accidentally detect things other than landmines. And an alternative demining solution, underground radar that sends high-frequency electromagnetic waves into the ground, has the disadvantage of being easily affected by the condition of the ground. In contrast, Lambdis produces fewer false positives.
According to the research team, the technology can be used not only to detect land mines, but also to assess building structures such as bridges for structural integrity or damage. In the future, it could be used to analyze products in the automotive and aerospace industries or even in medical imaging. Next, the team plans to evaluate Lambdis’ performance in different soil conditions and when hunting other types of buried objects.
This story originally appeared on WIRED Japan and has been translated from Japanese.
