[Ngo-lwg] Low-tech, high-design tumbleweed minesweeper

Chuck Searcy chucksearcy at yahoo.com
Thu Dec 6 23:06:19 ICT 2012


This may have been sent to the LWG already by Chuck Palazzo.  If not, here is the article and the link for anyone who wishes to take a look.

CHUCK 


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CHUCK SEARCY
Project RENEW 
Humpty Dumpty Institute
Veterans for Peace
25 Truong Han Sieu, #302, Hanoi, Vietnam
Mobile:    +84 (0) 903 420 769
Email:       chucksearcy at yahoo.com
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Skype:      chucksearcy
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http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/29/tech/innovation/mine-kafon-tumbleweed-minesweeper/index.html
Mine Kafon: The low-tech, high-design tumbleweed minesweeper

 By George Webster, CNN
November 29, 2012 -- Updated 1804 GMT (0204 HKT) | Filed under: Innovations

 
 
The Mine Kafon is a low-cost wind-powered mine detonator with the appearance of a giant, 
spiky-armed tumbleweed.  

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
	* Mine Kafon is a cheap, light, wind-powered mine detonating device
	* Created by an Afghan designer who was inspired by toys he modeled as a child 
	* Industry expert says concept is laudable, but does not currently meet safety standards
(CNN) -- An Afghan designer and former refugee has 
developed a low-cost, wind-powered mine detonating device inspired by 
the toys he played with as a child.

Massoud Hassani's Mine Kafon is composed almost entirely from bamboo and biodegradable 
plastics, with a skeletal structure of spiky plungers that resembles a 
giant spherical tumbleweed from another planet.

At 70 kilograms, Hassani 
says his invention is light enough to be propelled by a normal breeze, 
while still being heavy and big enough - 190cm in diameter - to activate mines as it rolls over them.

According to the U.N., 
there are more than 110 million active mines scattered across 70 
countries, with an equal number stockpiled around the world still 
waiting to be planted.

 
Afghan designer Massoud Hassani

Meanwhile, manual 
diffusion by trained mine-clearing experts remains the most common 
method of removal globally, according to the Landmine Monitor, an 
industry publication published by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

But this method can be prohibitively expensive - in some cases it costs thousands of dollars to clear just a single mine.

By contrast, Hassani 
claims the Mine Kafon -- which includes a basic GPS tracking device used to record the area "cleared" by its tumbling path - costs as little as 
$40 to build.

"The core sphere that 
contains the GPS system is high enough from the ground to avoid damage 
from most anti-personnel mines," explained Hassani.

The lengths of the 
spikes are based on the height of an adult's leg - because the kinds of 
mines that it is designed to clear are those that will take a leg off 
below the waist of an adult.

"So, as it moves the 
spikes get blown off, but the center stays intact," Hassani said. "It 
can withstand up to four explosions before it loses too many of its legs to carry on."

As a young kid growing up in Afghanistan, Hassani did what children the world over do: made up games and created his own toys.

"One of them was a 
little rolling object that was carried by the wind," he recalled. "We 
would race them against each other in the local fields.
"Sometimes, due to the presence of landmines, they would roll off into places that we weren't permitted to go."

After his father was 
killed in a rocket attack during the late 1980s, Hassani fled 
Afghanistan with his mother, brother and sisters. Living first in 
Uzbekistan, then traveling through central Asia and ending up four years later as a refugee in Holland, Hassani went on to study at the Design 
Academy in Eidenhoven.

It looks to me that there is also a huge limitation in terms of 
terrain ... I can't see it working on hills or areas with dense 
vegetation
Adam Komorowski, Mine Advisory Group head of operations. 


What started life as his final graduate design project has since undergone strength testing at 
the hands of the Dutch military. This year, a full-scale mock-up was 
tested in the deserts around Morocco and Hassani hopes to fundraise 
$100,000 so he can engineer the design to mass produced, industry 
standards.

However, some are skeptical about Mine Kafon's chances of ever meeting the official International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) -- considered to be the minimum grade of delivery for responsible mine clearing operations.

"There are many citizens who live in mine-affected areas who carry out their own DIY clearances, and while this is noble it is also very dangerous," explained Adam 
Komorowski, head of operations at the UK-based Mine Advisory Group.

"For any mine clearing technology to be adopted by a serious mine action organization, it needs to conform to IMAS.

"As much as I welcome 
all new ideas -- and I think this is a nice concept with great potential to raise awareness and perhaps inspire other solutions -- I can't see 
it meeting those standards in anything like its current form," he said.

Komorowski, who stresses that his assessment is based solely on what he has read and viewed 
online, believes that Hassani's creation is undermined by its dependence on the "serendipity of random gusts" -- making it a haphazard option in a field traditionally characterized by highly methodical techniques. 
"Every square centimeter of land should be properly checked," he said.

"I'm also not convinced 
that the device can be relied upon to necessarily detonate every mine it crosses," said Komorowski, who argues that if a couple of its spikes 
are blown off during a clearance, then the holes in its structure could 
cause it to miss other mines as it rolls on.
"It looks to me that 
there is also a huge limitation in terms of terrain," he added. "I can't see it working on hills or areas with dense vegetation."

I think we can use our talents to find design-based solutions to more serious problems


Hassani says he is aware of these limitations, and claims to have a number of solutions in the pipeline.

"We are developing a 
remote-controlled model with a motor and a metal detector -- so that 
even if it fails to detonate a mine, it should map-out the presence of 
metal structures underneath," he said.

Whether the Mine Kaffon 
can be engineered to overcome the criticisms of industry insiders like 
Komorowski, the strikingly-designed structure with its poetic symmetry 
has already brought the issue of landmine clearance to new audiences in 
the design world.

It was recently 
showcased during Dutch Design Week and the Lodz Design Festival, and in 
March of next year will enjoy a run at New York's prestigious Museum of 
Modern Art.

"The design industry is 
perhaps too focused on tables and chairs," said Hassani. "I think we can use our talents to find design-based solutions to more serious 
problems."


  
    

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