Ryan Baker says that Laos is, per capita, the most heavily bombed nation in the world. During the Vietnam war the US flew more than half a million bombing missions and delivered more than two million tons of explosive ordnance.
Much of this unexploded ordnance (UXO) is still in the ground and causes several problems. People are injured or killed, food security is compromised and economic development is hindered.
Baker's solution is to use his company's drones to search for these UXOs without putting the drone operators in danger. Arch Aerial is running a Kickstarter campaign to get development funding for a proposed Arch Aerial UXO Drone.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/599584552/humanitarian-drones-bomb-locating-unmanned-aerial
The team will develop and validate their UXO Drone and shoot a documentary film that shows the process of development and ordnance removal. An aggressive eight month timeline starts in October 2014 and plans to run tests beginning in February 2015. Campaign backers who spend the $3000 to get their own UXO Drones can expect delivery by May 2015.
Arch Aerial has already successfully brought several drone variations to market. Their niche is in the field of aerial photography allowing the drones to easily locate and digitally mark bombs in the field.
Engineering should always strive to make the world a better place, and adapting existing technology to new applications is a great way to help people who have an ever present deadly problem.
This Kickstarter campaign doesn't have much in terms of technical specs, but Arch Aerial already has an eight rotor design in production that can be modified for higher payload capacity. Atlas-1 CORE is their current bestseller, a bare bones kit that allows the user to select the transmitter, receiver and camera for the drone.
Ideally this technology can be used around the world for cleanup of leftover war implements. This isn't the first time we've covered innovative methods of ordnance removal, and hopefully there are several more innovations to come.
http://www.uxolao.org/index.php/gallery/1-photo-gallery/detail/6-big-bomb-disposal1#