NPA Ukraine Conducts Pilot Project with Safe Pro AI for Automated Processing of Drone Imagery
In November 2023, NPA Ukraine started a pilot project with Safe Pro AI, a company that aims to utilise drones and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate the detection of landmines and unexploded ordnance. As part of the pilot, NPA’s non-technical survey (NTS) teams in Ukraine provide the company with drone imagery of explosive ordnance contaminated fields. Safe Pro AI then uses this imagery to further train and develop their cloud-based AI model for analysing drone footage. To accommodate the pilot project, all NTS teams have been trained to capture drone footage according to the AI model’s standards for imagery and resolution.
NPA’s operational management staff are positive about the potential increase in efficiency once the AI model is fully developed and accurate enough for practical use. If NPA adopts the Safe Pro AI model, the NTS process could become significantly faster, as the time required to review and process drone imagery and data would be reduced by the AI technology. The integration of AI to process drone imagery for identifying hazardous areas represents one of several promising technological advancements in the mine action sector that are expected to expedite the demining process in Ukraine.