Mine Kafon landmine clearing robot
It’s a problem close to home here, well Mozambique to be precise. It took 22 years to clear 171,000 American and Russian mines laid during Mozambique’s revolution. In 1994 Human Rights Watch (HRW) said landmines had claimed between 10,000 and 15,000 victims in Mozambique.
Mozambique was declared free of mines in 2015.
Recently in Bosnia Pokemon Go players were warned to stay clear of minefields whilst trying to collect them all.
So best of luck to this crowdfunding effort. It’s a problem that affects children around the world and needs addressing at a higher political and moral level.
As I write this worthy cause has 1,448 backers and raised €54,369 of their €70,000 target.
Best of luck to them!
Growing up in Afghanistan, Massoud Hassani, founder of Hassani Design BV and Mine Kafon creator, experienced the dangers of landmines first hand. After moving more than 40 times through different countries, Massoud and his family settled down in the Netherlands, where he went on to study Industrial Design at Design Academy Eindhoven.
Inspired by the homemade wind-powered toys he made during his childhood in Afghanistan, Massoud created the Mine Kafon wind-powered landmine detector for his 2011 graduation project. The project rapidly gained interest in the media and in 2012, Massoud and his brother Mahmud organised a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the development of the Mine Kafon as a prominent piece of landmine clearing technology.
Having undergone extensive prototyping and field testing with the support of the Dutch Ministry of Defence, Hassani Design BV’s multidisciplinary team, are now working to optimise the Mine Kafon to safely and efficiently operate across all landmine contaminated terrains.
Hassani Design BV’s robotic solution to landmine detection and detonation is safer, faster and cheaper than existing technologies.
It is our aim to work with top humanitarian organisations and industry leaders to clear the world’s landmines quickly and systematically with reliable results. This is a huge challenge, but we believe that with the right technology it is possible.
“Mine Kafon is not only an anti-landmine device; it opens a discussion of global awareness” – Massoud Hassani
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/massoudhassani/mine-kafon-drone
