Researchers are combining drones and AI to make removing land mines faster and safer

Using drones makes detecting land mines safer. Using AI to fuse data from multiple types of sensors on the drones makes it more efficient.

By: Sagar Lekhak, Rochester Institute of Technology, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: March 5, 2026

Words: 1,311

Last Updated: 4 days, 12 hours ago

By Sagar Lekhak, Rochester Institute of Technology

At least 57 nations have live antipersonnel land mines in their territories. In 2024 alone, 1,945 people were killed by mines and 4,325 were injured, 90% of whom were civilians. Nearly half of those were children. Demining operations removed 105,640 mines in the same year.

With new conflicts, the number of mines continues to grow. For farmers, children and others returning to areas after a conflict, …

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