Danish-Ukrainian Startup Develops Drones Swarm for Demining

A Danish-Ukrainian tech startup is working to address the critical issue of demining Ukrainian lands using robotics and neural networks.

This was reported by Odense Robotics, which provided the startup with funding and technical assistance.

It is reported that with modern technologies, demining in Ukraine, which has a mined area of 144,000 square kilometers, will take more than 70 years and cost 33.5 billion euros.

Some of the technological solutions developed by the startup are already being produced and tested in Ukraine.

“Today, Ukraine is the most mined country in the world. The current demining process is painfully slow, dangerous and expensive. Ukraine simply does not have the time to wait or the money to invest,” says Vyacheslav Shvaidak, co-founder and CEO of Dropla Tech ApS.

Schwaidak says that with current technology, it costs about 1-3 euros to clear one square meter. He assures that by using robotics and artificial intelligence, the demining can be faster, cheaper, and safer.

According to the company, the new solution can reduce the cost of demining one square meter to 10 cents, and the time required to do so can be reduced from 70 years to 12 years.

Mine clearance in Ukraine is also a matter of global food security. Before the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine was an important global food supplier, feeding more than 400 million people worldwide and providing 10% of all grain crops sold.

“Today, 26,000 square kilometers of agricultural land in the liberated territories have been affected by landmines and unexploded ordnance due to Russian aggression. This is equivalent to half of Denmark. Due to their high economic productivity and critical importance for food security, agricultural land is the number one priority for demining,” says Shvaidak.

How the new solutions work

Dropla is a tool to assist in demining operations. The landmine detection platform combines drone swarm technology equipped with multi-modal sensor fusion with a fleet of unmanned ground vehicles that can confirm safe zones.

While most mine clearance solutions use a single drone, Dropla deploys a swarm of six UAVs simultaneously, allowing it to cover a larger area and faster – up to 0.5 square kilometers per day.

The drones detect mines using optical, magnetic, and electromagnetic sensors and send the data to a computer station that creates a digital georeferenced surface map showing the location of the threats.

Dropla’s remotely operated ground preparation drones then remove plants and make sure no threats are left undetected.

These drones are designed to withstand the detonation of anti-personnel mines that may have been missed during the initial survey. As a result, the area becomes safe for deminers to enter and clear it of mines.

Tests in Ukraine

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine and the State Special Transport Service are currently testing Dropla drones.

They are manufactured by the Dropla Tech production group in Ukraine and one drone costs only 10,000 euros.

Dropla’s neural networks are trained on data from more than 300 landmines and UXOs collected at its own training ground in Ukraine.

The combined drone swarm solution is still under development and should be ready in six months.