Demine
Robotics
is
bringing
their
robotic
solution
into
the
Cambodian
minefields
to
clear
explosives
and
needs
your
support!
Please
join
Demine
Robotics
on
International
Mine
Awareness
Day,
Thursday,
April
4th
and
be
a
part
of
the
journey
of building
robots
with
a
humanitarian
mission.
Meet
the
Waterloo
alumnus
who
is
innovating
a
future
free
of
landmines, Co-Founder
and
CEO
Richard
Yim,
to
hear
about
their
progress
and
kick-off
their
crowdfunding
and
fundraising
campaign.
Richard
Yim
(BASc
'16;
MBET
'17)
Co-Founder
and
CEO
Demine
Robotics
Richard
Yim
is
a
Co-Founder
of
Demine
Robotics
and
ASEAN
Top
40
Under
40.
Born
in
Cambodia,
Richard
spent
the
first
13
years
of
his
life
being
cautioned,
as
all
Cambodian
children
are,
about
where
he
could
and
could
not
play,
and
seeing
on
every
street
people
who
were
maimed
to
one
degree
or
another.
Richard
Yim
knows
first-hand
the
danger
of
land
mines:
when
he
was
eight,
his
aunt
died
after
stepping
on
one.
Cambodia
has
the
unfortunate
distinction
of
being
one
of
the
most
heavily
land-mined
countries
in
the
world
–
with
an
estimated
eight
to
10
million
land
mines
in
the
country.
At
13,
he
moved
to
Canada,
and
he
later
got
an
engineering
degree
from
the
University
of
Waterloo
and
founded
the Demine
Robotics,
a
company
dedicated
to
detecting
and
safely
neutralizing
mines
using
robotics.
The
prototype
bot,
built
by
Yim
as
a
fourth-year
project,
clamps
onto
a
mine,
stabilizing
its
detonator
and
slicing
into
the
body
to
melt
the
explosive
TNT
within.
---
Even
today,
there
are
still
thousands
of
landmine-related
deaths
every
year.
In
addition
to
the
direct
cost
of
human
life,
landmines
are
also
accompanied
with
other
consequences.
Heavily
mined
regions
are
unable
to
be
farmed
stunting
the
economic
growth
of
agricultural
economies.
In
order
to
combat
the
use
of
landmines,
large-scale
efforts
have
been
enacted.
However,
of
these
large-scale
efforts
a
popular
approach
is
manual-excavation
and
controlled
explosions.
In
this
instance,
landmines
are
removed
from
the
ground
manually
in
order
to
be
neutralized.
This
increased
contact
with
the
landmine
is
both
extremely
dangerous
as
well
as
time-consuming.
Richard’s
team
is
developing
a
product
to
make
the
demining
process
safer
and
more
efficient
by
building
a
machine
to
excavate
and
neutralize
mines
without
human
supervision.
The
challenge
is
that
land
mines
are
easy
to
make
and
place
(costing
as
little
as
$3
U.S.)
but
challenging,
expensive,
and
highly
dangerous
to
remove.
For
Richard,
it
became
a
personal
mission
to
figure
out
a
better
way
to
rid
the
world
of
land
mines.
"Never
let
passion
dictate
your
work
ethic."
-
Richard
Yim