Introduction
Landmines, cluster munitions and other explosive ordnance continue to threaten lives and livelihoods in more than 60 countries and territories. Globally, someone is killed or injured by such weapons approximately every two hours. Survivors and their families face lasting physical, psychological, social, and economic consequences.
Mine action is the name given to the humanitarian response to this challenge. According to the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) framework, mine action encompasses activities which aim to reduce the social, economic and environmental impact of explosive ordnance. This is not solely about demining, but also about addressing the broader effects on people and societies. Its goal is to reduce explosive ordnance risk to a level where safe living, economic and social development, and victim assistance are possible.
This WIPO Technology SPARK (Short Pieces of Analysis, Research and Knowledge) Technologies for Mine Action report, undertaken in collaboration with the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), aims to provide insights into technological innovation across post-conflict explosive ordnance survey and clearance, including mechanical systems and sensing technologies. By analyzing patenting activity and innovation trends, the report supports a better understanding of innovation pathways: how new technical solutions emerge, evolve and are applied in practice. Detection technologies constitute a central focus of the work, being so critical to safe, effective and efficient mine action through having the ability to determine the location of hazardous areas and explosive ordnance. Ultimately, the challenge for detection technologies is to maximize the probability of detection, while minimizing the number of false alarms – a balance that remains technically demanding and operationally costly.
The report provides a unique contribution to this field by systematically mapping patent activity in demining and related technologies. It sheds light on innovation trends, the geographical distribution of intellectual property (IP), and the interplay between civilian, humanitarian and defense-driven research. This perspective is essential for understanding the historical development of demining technologies, identifying opportunities to accelerate innovation, fostering technology transfer, and guiding future investment into research and development. In adopting this perspective, the report aims to inform and provide practical information and solutions relevant to many states, donors, researchers, and practitioners involved in addressing one of the most enduring humanitarian and developmental challenges of our time.
Background
Explosive ordnance (EO) contamination poses serious risks to communities, limiting their access to land, infrastructure and essential services, as well as having long-term social, economic and environmental consequences. Mine action is a set of activities aimed at reducing the impact of EO – a category that includes landmines, cluster munitions, unexploded ordnance (UXO), abandoned ordnance, booby traps, improvised explosive devices, and other hazardous devices.
While mine action is organized around five complementary pillars – explosive ordnance clearance, risk education, stockpile destruction victim assistance, and advocacy – each with a critical role to play, this report focuses primarily on land release, which is central to restoring land to safe and productive use (Figure 1).
_pillars.png)
“Land release” is a term that has been adopted to replace former references to “clearance” and encompasses “survey” as a critical step of the process preceding clearance.
Land release is the process of applying “all reasonable effort” to identify, define and remove all presence or suspicion of EO through non-technical survey (NTS), technical survey and/or clearance.
Survey methods refer to the collection and analysis of information on the presence of EO, leading to the areas surveyed being classified as either safe or else containing suspected or confirmed hazardous areas. This evidence-based approach forms the foundation for all subsequent clearance activities. These entail the detection, removal and/or disposal of EO, as well as post-clearance assessment and quality management, ensuring that land can be reliably declared safe for use.
Technological innovation is central to mine action. Surveying and remote sensing technologies, such as airborne or satellite sensors (e.g., high resolution RGB (red, green, blue) imagery, magnetometry, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), multispectral and hyperspectral imaging) and integrated multimodal data analysis (often assisted with artificial intelligence (AI) computational methods), complement on-the-ground efforts by supporting the collection of evidence as to the presence of EO.
Mechanical demining systems can be categorized as:
machines designed to destroy hazards
machines designed to detect hazards
machines designed to prepare the ground
These systems can support surveying and clearance by speeding up specific processes, such as by providing access to contaminated land; destroying EO; preparing the terrain; removing debris, rubble or tripwires; cutting vegetation; and providing safe platforms for other detection attachments.
Detection technologies, for example, metal detection, GPR and magnetometers, to name but three, are designed to locate EO with a degree of probability, while at the same time minimizing false alarms. Other technologies such as trace explosives detection and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) could vastly minimize false alarms by detecting explosive substances but are still note mature enough to be fielded.
Despite decades of research and investment, the adoption of new technologies in mine action has often been slower than anticipated. Operational complexity, environmental variability, a frequent difference in focus between research and development (R&D) and field requirements, limited funding for transitioning prototypes into practical solutions, constraints to scaling due to limited humanitarian funding, and resistance to change are among the key technological challenges.
Finally, no single technology or methodology can address every demining scenario. A deminer’s toolbox approach remains essential: understanding the operational realities, key concepts, and technological approaches is essential for interpreting innovation trends and patent activity relevant to mine action, which is the focus of this report.
Methodology
Technologies that support surveying and clearance operations – whether for detecting, removing or neutralizing EO, or for protecting operators in the field – play a critical role in making mine action safer, more effective and efficient. For the purpose of the analysis, these technologies were grouped into three main categories:
Detection technologies, including sensors for metal, GPR, trace explosives and other methods for locating evidence as to the presence of EO.
Clearance technologies, encompassing mechanical demining systems, vehicles, and tools for the removal or destruction of EO.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) designed to reduce the risk to operators during survey and clearance activities.
This categorization provides a structured framework for examining patent trends, innovation pathways, and the interplay between different technology types in the area of mine action.
In addition to categorization, the analysis also considers the end-use orientation of the technologies in question. While many inventions for which patents have been filed are potentially dual-use, that is, applicable to both military and humanitarian contexts, others are exclusive to just one domain. For example, mine-clearing charges are designed solely for military operations, whereas most PPE and manual or mechanical clearance tools are primarily humanitarian. This segmentation provides an important layer of interpretation, allowing the report to distinguish between trends driven by military R&D priorities and those more directly relevant to mine action.
Patent families published worldwide between 2004 and 2024 – identified and analyzed using the Patsnap patent database – are included in the analysis. A patent family is a collection of patent applications covering the same or similar technical content (i.e., the same invention). Analysis was conducted using patent families to count inventions and not several patents corresponding to the same subject matter and filed in different jurisdictions (jurisdiction refers to a country or regional office where a patent is filed). All demining technologies, including those not specifically related to mine action, have been included in the analysis.