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Researchers use drones and AI to detect Soviet ‘butterfly’ landmines


Scientists have developed a method of automatically detecting hidden landmines by using AI to scan images captured by drones. Researchers from New York’s Binghamton University designed the system to detect Soviet PFM-1 landmines — nicknamed “butterflies” due to their wing-like shape. Their small size and largely plastic construction make them hard for humans to spot and almost invisible to the metal detectors used in landmine clearance. More than a million of these mines have littered Afghanistan since military helicopters dropped them across the country during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s. Their green shell and winged shape often attracts children to play with them,…

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