Transcript The deMining Initiative

The Demining Initiative
A Collaboration Resource for the Demining
Research Community
Vikas Reddy
23rd April 2008
Agenda
• The Landmine
Crisis
• Cornell
MineSweeper
• The McGrath
Catalyst
• State of the
Planet
• The Demining
Initiative
• The Future
• Q&A
The Landmine Crisis
•
•
•
•
110 million active
landmines
Still claim 20000 victims
annually i.e. 1 every 22
minutes
Countries most affected
such as Cambodia,
Afghanistan, Angola are
economically backward
Minefields further
cripple economy by
preventing land usage
and growth
The Landmine Crisis
• Current demining
technologies are either
too slow (estimate of
300 years to clear all
minefields) or too
expensive (a single
vehicle priced at several
$ million)
• Clear need for a lowcost, effective and
sustainable demining
solution
• Costs $3 to lay a mine,
$1200 to remove it
Source : http://diwww.epfl.ch/lami/detec/rodemine.html
Cornell MineSweeper
• Founded in Aug
2006
• Mission
Develop low cost
humanitarian
demining solutions
• Our Solution
Autonomous
demining robots
• Flagship Prototype:
Gladiator
The McGrath Catalyst
“I really want to congratulate
Cornell for allowing this young
team the freedom to develop the
idea. What excited me the most
was that the team … hasn’t made
the mistake of so many other
groups that set out to find the
solution. They’ve really done their
research and they’re developing
something that’s very flexible. The
next step for them is to go to
somewhere with the problem of
landmines, and I’ve promise them
that I will put them in touch with
people who can help them to take
this next step,” said McGrath.
-Cornell Sun. March 14 2008
The McGrath Catalyst
• Several revelations regarding
the ‘needs’ and the ‘wants’
• All robotics researchers
working on autonomous
solutions while there was no
real expressed need
• The neglected human element
• Several shortcomings in the
design and research process
came to light
State of the Planet
• “The Human Element in
Humanitarian Demining”
• “Game theoretic methods to
predict landmine locations”
• Reach out to other research
groups and share “notes”
The Demining Initiative
• Credit goes to James
Mandel (Jamie)
• Collaboration resource
based on the Cornell
Confluence Wiki
• MineSweeper’s Public
resource
• All designs open
sourced here. Licensing
scheme TBD
• All design thoughts and
design queries jotted
down here
The Demining Initiative
https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/DEMININGINIT/
The Future
• Publish findings on
“The Human Element
in Humanitarian
Demining” in the
Journal of Mine
Action. Paper
deadline Mid-June
• Tightly integrate The
Demining Initiative
with Cornell
MineSweeper
• Recruit a dedicated
wiki manager
Recruiting!
• MineSweeper is recruiting members for
Summer and Fall 2008
• http://minesweeper.engineering.cornell.edu
• All majors and years welcome
Q&A