Most strife torn areas feature many mines left over from battles of the past. To make sure that innocent civilians don’t pay a price for the past, demining efforts are undertaken regularly. In Afghanistan, the number of mines amount to thousands, posing a hazard to soldiers and ordinary folk alike. Massoud Hassani is an Afghan designer, who has designed the Mine Sweeper based on a childhood toy.
His invention is different from others in that it uses bamboo for its construction. The huge device is powered by wind and when it hits a mine to destroy it, it loses its spikes. Hassani has equipped the intelligent Mine Sweeper with a GPS chip so that it can locate the mines that have been destroyed, letting residents know about places that are safe. His novel invention has been nominated for an award by London’s Design Museum.
Growing up in Afghanistan, Hassani witnessed an incident where local boys were injured by a landmine after the toys they were playing with blew towards the mined area. This prompted him to later create his novel device. With it, he hopes to be able to contribute towards efforts of demining and help rid his country of the menace landmines pose to ordinary citizens.
Afghanistan is a country long affected by war. In 1993, the United Nations estimated that the city of Kabul was the world’s most heavily mined capital. The landmines aren’t just a result of the war fought between the US and the Taliban; many remained following the Soviet occupation from 1979 to 89. Though international teams have been working to safely remove these mines, it is a gradual and slow process. Hassani’s design will hopefully aid in this removal and some day in the future, we may see Afghanistan finally being landmine free.
Mine sweeper from robertanderson on Vimeo.
Via: Inspir3d
