How Japan uses heavy machinery and AI to clear Ukraine mines

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With some 2 million land mines believed to be contaminating around 174,000 square kilometers in Ukraine, Japan is bringing both its diplomatic and technological skills to bear as it seeks to reduce the threat in the war-torn nation. Japan will host an international workshop this fall focusing on mine clearance efforts in Ukraine. After that, it is set to chair the 22nd conference of the parties to the Ottawa Convention the 1997 agreement that prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines when it meets in Geneva in December.At the same time, the Japanese government, private companies and academics are using both cutting-edge technology and more traditional approaches to clearing large areas of mines and unexploded ordnance in an effort to save lives in Ukraine.Japanese companies have decades of experience in this sector. Komatsu Ltd, the Tokyo-based manufacturer of heavy construction equipment, has been cooperating with NGOs in Cambodia since 1999 to clear paddy fields and the countryside of mines. The company has since expanded similar programs to Laos, Afghanistan and Angola.

Detonating devices ‘in situ’

On July 9 last year, Japan’s ambassador to Kyiv, Kuninori Matsuda, handed over four heavily armored Komatsu excavators to Ukraine. The machines are fitted with equipment to safely detonate anti-personnel mines “in situ” in their original position.The foreign ministry in Tokyo followed this up with a statement saying that the removal of mines and unexploded ordnance was “not only essential in ensuring the safety and security of residents, but is also a prerequisite for recovery and reconstruction” in Ukraine.The following month, a group of trainees with the state emergency service of Ukraine (SESU) traveled to Japan for instruction in the operation and maintenance of equipment, before going on to Cambodia for practical training in the field.Between the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the end of 2024, Japan provided Ukraine with 91 billion yen (€553.9 million, $617 million) in grant aid to assist its reconstruction.

Japan vows to help Ukraine

Under the terms of its post-war constitution, however, Japan has to navigate strict restrictions on military aid to Ukraine. Tokyo has provided Kyiv with medical equipment, helmets and body armor, but not the munitions or weapons systems that have been forthcoming from other nations.Yet successive Japanese leaders have committed to doing what they can to assist.“Japan will step up its efforts in the areas of mine clearance to enable the Ukrainian people to feel reassured as they re-establish their daily lives,” then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told the attendees of the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland last year.And while Komatsu is using tried-and-tested techniques to render mines safe, others are applying the latest technological advances to the problem.

Drones learning to find mines from the air

In February, Hideyuki Sawada, a professor in the school of advanced science and engineering at Tokyo’s Waseda University, took part in an online seminar organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross to detail his latest advances. Sawada’s team is developing a system that teaches AI to identify mines using a drone equipped with an infrared camera. The drone is capable of scanning large areas of ground much more rapidly than humans equipped with hand-held detection equipment. Potential threats can then be marked for specialist engineers to make them safe.“I started this research in 2019 and I’m trying to make robots behave and react like a human,” Sawada, an expert in artificial intelligence, robotics and machine learning, told DW. “We are using machine learning to teach the robot to identify a mine from the hundreds of pictures that we input.”The challenge is greatly increased as mines are usually buried underground, so the infrared camera is required to help detect and identify a target from its metal or plastic heat signature, he added. Temperatures, humidity levels and the makeup of the ground further complicate the situation, but are gradually being overcome, Sawada said.“At the moment we have a success rate of around 95% for buried mines and we are adding extra variables, such as temperature and terrain,” he said.Sawada and his team are gathering data on these variables in Ukraine. The Japanese expert is keen to get on the ground, although he says more work needs to be done to achieve the optimum results.“There are more than 100 different types of mines that have been used there so it is difficult to gather all the data we need for every situation,” he told DW.

Protecting ‘an entire generation of children’

“Even though the system is not yet perfect, I believe it is very important to test it in a real-world environment and gather more data so we can build our knowledge of the technology and the environment so we can become more effective,” Sawada said.And it is critical that such improvements are made quickly, he added.“We know that 40% of the victims of land mines are children who are playing in the fields and accidentally step on a mine,” he said. “Solving this problem will mean that an entire generation of children will not have to experience that.”“In Ukraine, even after the war has ended, mines will still be there and mean that many areas are not safe,” Sawada said. “I want to do my best to change that and there are other Japanese companies and organizations that are doing the same.”