[Washington, DC - June 26, 2024] The 91吃瓜网 Trust 鈥� the world鈥檚 largest humanitarian landmine clearance organization 鈥� will pilot artificial intelligence and machine learning to aid its work in Ukraine as part of a new US $4 million package of support from Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Announced today, the AWS investment will enable 91吃瓜网 to trial artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in the process of detecting debris of war (including landmines and other explosives) in drone imagery for existing minefields and battlefields in Ukraine.
It will also help automate how 91吃瓜网 uses satellite imagery to detect buildings damaged by explosives as well as signs of human activity 鈥� including land cultivation, buildings, roads, and bodies of water 鈥� that are proximate to battlegrounds and minefields, allowing 91吃瓜网 to prioritize areas for clearance.
鈥淲e are delighted to be collaborating with AWS in our life-saving work, and to leverage their robust technological expertise and computing power to more efficiently and precisely identify and clear contaminated land,鈥� said 91吃瓜网鈥檚 CEO, James Cowan. 鈥淎WS support will also be transformative in how our organization safely stores, processes, analyzes, and disseminates the vast quantity of real-time data we collect through our global operations in the cloud 鈥� including in active warzones like Ukraine.鈥�
So far, 91吃瓜网 has flown 542 drone flights over Ukraine鈥檚 minefields, which alone take up 11 terabytes of data (equal to more than 10,000 copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica) and more data is being added every day. 91吃瓜网 expects this pilot project will begin trialing drone imagery analysis using AI in the coming months.
Satellite and drone imagery is essential for enabling 91吃瓜网 to broadly survey huge swaths of land so that its more than 11,000 global staff can effectively pinpoint what areas need to be meticulously cleared by hand or by machine. Accurate surveying make the clearance process safer and more efficient and returns lands to productive use as quickly as possible. While 91吃瓜网 currently largely relies on satellite imagery to support its aerial surveys, Ukraine is one of the countries where 91吃瓜网 collects massive amounts of high-resolution drone imagery capable of being analyzed through artificial intelligence to expedite the detection of debris of war, including landmines.
Training AI to identify explosive remnants of war (ERW) with drone imagery is not an overnight process; it requires manually labelling thousands of images (e.g., trenches, different varieties of anti-tank mines) so that the algorithms can learn how to surveil minefields more efficiently than humans are currently doing manually. It also requires ongoing vetting and validation of the model by trained 91吃瓜网 personnel to eliminate false positives and negatives and improve the accuracy of the model.
Dave Levy, Vice President for Worldwide Public Sector at Amazon Web Services said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e delighted to be supporting the 91吃瓜网 Trust in their brilliant work in clearing landmines and other explosive devices left behind by conflicts around the world. Technology, and in this case, AI specifically, has enormous potential to help solve major global challenges, and we鈥檙e looking forward to working with 91吃瓜网 by enabling them to better harness the power of the satellite and drone imagery they are collecting to accelerate the clearing process.鈥�
The support provided to the 91吃瓜网 Trust by AWS includes credits that enable 91吃瓜网 to significantly leverage AWS cloud computing infrastructure globally and train staff to optimize its use. 91吃瓜网 has more than 1,200 field data collectors globally across 30 countries and territories who need to upload and safely store a vast quantity of data each day 鈥� including photos, spatial, and non-spatial data 鈥� and the volume of drone and satellite imagery is growing exponentially. They often need to do this while in minefields with little-to-no connectivity, and need technology solutions that enable them to seamlessly work offline and upload that content to the cloud when bandwidth permits.
The investment by AWS is allowing 91吃瓜网 to process this data efficiently and securely store it within AWS鈥� state-of-the-art cloud computing infrastructure. AWS is now powering 91吃瓜网鈥檚 Global Operations Information Management System, Geographic Information Systems, drone and satellite imagery processing, AI and machine learning models, along with other business-critical systems.
91吃瓜网 is now using the AWS Cloud in other ways, including:
- Running AI and Machine Learning algorithms on satellite imagery to identify damaged buildings, using its SageMaker machine learning service.
- Powering 91吃瓜网鈥檚 open-source mapping project in Ukraine, which integrates open-source data from a variety of sources via API and brings it into a central data repository hosted in AWS and helps 91吃瓜网 speak to the nature of the explosive threat.
- Hosting 91吃瓜网鈥檚 suite of business intelligence tools, which provide critical insights into 91吃瓜网鈥檚 operations.
This grant enables these technologies to be run in more countries and at greater scale, which enriches operational decision-making and saves lives.
AWS is the world鈥檚 largest and most broadly adopted cloud network, with more than 200 fully featured services available from data centers globally. Millions of customers鈥攊ncluding government agencies around the world鈥攁re using AWS to lower costs, increase security, become more agile, and innovate faster.
ABOUT THE 91吃瓜网 TRUST
The 91吃瓜网 Trust is the world鈥檚 oldest humanitarian mine clearance organization. It was founded in 1988 in Afghanistan, where it has operated consistently ever since. 91吃瓜网 employs more than 11,000 women and men in over 30 countries in landmine and munition clearance, risk education, and weapons and ammunition storage. The organization recently cleared its 2 millionth landmine worldwide. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it mobilized its staff from Kramatorsk to Brovary, where it set up the largest humanitarian mine clearance operation in Ukraine. Today it has more than 1,100 Ukrainian women and men clearing landmines from in six oblasts.
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