IDEaS Innovator journeys: Canadian innovation, Ukrainian expertise build minefield breaching capabilities
Video / March 18, 2026
Transcript
(MK) The estimate from the Ukraine government it's about 30% of the country has the potential to be a danger zone, right? That presents a big problem for the civilians, especially.
(AF) And so, what we bring to this is a test site that is informed by decades of knowledge of what the threats are, what the scenarios are, how to design targets that the results will be representative of the real world.
(BU) Modern mine warfare has very much evolved. And it is unknown to most western countries and the west because the notion of the classic mine warfare is now absent due to the rapid development of drones. Accordingly, the rise of various improvised explosive devices dropped from drones can be used over quite a wide area, up to 15 kilometres to the rear. With the development and constant evolution of drones, mine warfare has become much more dangerous and much more complicated. Because now they use not only standard mines, but also a lot of improvised explosive devices that work on magnetic sensors, tilt sensors and so on. These are antipersonnel explosive devices.
(JC) What we got is we have a commercial drone that is carrying around our sensors. We have a variety of sensors. This is one of them here. It's a ground-penetrating radar. It allows us to see objects if they’re buried. And we can use it to distinguish between different kinds of landmines. For the camera imagery, we use AI, a machine-learning program to automatically recognize mines. We did that on the first day here. We went flying, did aten-minute flight over the minefield and we could detect all of the mines that were on the surface.
(CK) When we tested in Toronto, the air is much more cleaner. There is not so much dust. But when we fly yesterday for the first time, I saw there are so many aerosols. And I learned that in the future and when we want to improve this. For example, the LIDAR part of it, we have to automatically remove those aerosols, so that it becomes more practical in the real battlefield. And that is something that’s also learn as you go. It challenges us, but it’s also inspiring for thoughts and how we can improve in the future development.
(JMF) We have an invention. It is a two-part polyurethane foam. And what it does is, it helps block the mechanical activation of landmines. We're not detonating landmines. Instead, we are trying to disable the mechanical actuator, going after the detonators to render them inoperable. So, I’ll give you an example. This is an anti-personnel landmine, and if you stepped on it, you would be pushing this button. And once you apply our solution to it, it applies as a liquid, it grows into a very, very strong foam. And you can stand on this, no problem. It will not activate the detonator. So, this is rendered inoperable.
(OH) It is still not commercial ready. And that’s actually one of the goals for us here is to find partners, find someone who might be interested in licensing us, our product in the future. And looking for funding to get it from TRL 4, 5, which where it is now, to TRL 10, which is fully commercial or ready to use on the front line.
(NK) This has been really the genius, I think, of IDEaS. How to bring industry and the CAF together with real defence problems. And I do just want to say that we are especially honoured to have the Ukrainian delegation here to inform that.
(PB) I have a very good attitude towards these events. It’s really cool that we can be invited here and we can come. That we have seen one or two technologies that might work. One technology might save at least one person. That’s already good. And overall, there are projects here that could save a thousand people.
(AF) So in this particular case, we foresee replacing the tanks the crewed tanks that are used in this role right now who are, would be very much at risk in this military scenario. We foresee replacing them with autonomous uncrewed systems. And this is going right across the whole military.