Heuristic optimization technique to locate and avoid buried landmines: drone-based approach

Landmines detection and removal are one of the biggest problems that faced many countries throughout the world. The procedures of landmines detection and removal are slow, dangerous and labor intensive. Some countries are currently involved in peacekeeping forces, where troops are in constant danger from landmines placed along roads and tracks. Accordingly, such traps are considered as an effective weapon in threatening troop’s lives, and preventing their movements. From this perspective, to meet the need for a fast way to locate landmines, and to offer the highest level of safety for military forces without the risk of triggering them during any mission; a lightweight aerial system that implements a heuristic optimization technique is proposed in this paper. The system is structured with five units: Hexacopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), landmine detector, hands free flight controller, emergency flight controller, and the main on-board flight controller. Drone is equipped with a landmine detector, emergency flight controller, and the main on-board flight controller. Based on the feedback from the landmine detector, Drone will guide the leader of the troop through the communication channel established between the hands free flight controller and the emergency flight controller. The system has been simulated using the MATLAB and the overall concept shows promise. Additionally, experiments are carried out successfully on the real hardware.