Hong Kong dentist dreams of robot to clear landmines
Undeterred by rejection, Hong Kong inventor Ng Tze-chuen, who has designed tools for space missions and a robot for archaeological expeditions, explains to Stuart Heaver how his idea would avoid people dying clearing minefields in Cambodia and elsewhere
A Hong Kong inventor whose ideas have been successfully utilised in international space programmes believes he has a solution to the deadly threat of landmines, which still plagues the rural populations of Cambodia and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor report, casualties - dead and maimed - attributed to mines, cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war (ERW) between 1999 and 2014 numbered 96,492, of which 46,775 were suffered in the Asia-Pacific region.
Ng Tze-chuen is a dentist with an impressive track record as an inventor. His Space Holinser Forceps concept for gripping objects in zero gravity was used by the European Space Agency's Beagle 2 Mars exploration project and he has developed 3D robotic concepts for brain surgery, yet, despite several visits to Cambodia and many meetings with officials and experts, his proposed solution to the problem of landmines and other ERW has been largely given the cold shoulder. He says one agency even privately dismissed him as a "nutcase" and others regard him as a "troublemaker".
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"My proposal is a differential diagnostic robotic system to detect and identify the hidden object and quantify the amount of TNT contained in it," he says.
Ng's conceptual method is known as the Unmanned Rapid Eradication System (URES). It involves sniffer dogs (already commonly used in landmine detection) and, for initial surveys, a drone fitted with GPS, an electromagnetic metal detector and an ultrasound scanner. These are combined with a large bulldozer robot with three rotator arms fitted with sensors to undertake detection, classification and disposal of mines and unexploded ordnance.