Clearing landmines is a laborious and life-threatening task. At the same time, the number of landmines laid is constantly increasing due to ongoing conflicts.

The economics behind this explain why landmines are such an effective weapon: It costs €5 to manufacture and deploy an antipersonnel mine, but it costs €500 to detect and clear it. Finding a single landmine can result in an entire field being classified as potentially dangerous and therefore completely closed off. 

The major challenge, therefore, is to clear as much area as possible in the shortest amount of time, without putting human deminers at risk, and to make it accessible again. At the same time, resources for complete clearance must be deployed strategically to avoid unnecessary effort and to accelerate the land release to communities  as much as possible.