How precision mapping is making minefield clearance faster and easier

Patrick Truong’s six years clearing landmines for humanitarian organisations was still the best job he’s ever had. It took him to Syria, where he led teams of local nationals clearing minefields so that farmers could work on their land again, and Iraq, where he and his colleagues cleared children’s paths to school. “With every item we found and disposed of, you could sense there was an immediate impact, that we were helping protect people’s lives and limbs,” Truong says.

While working in Syria, Truong met his now-partner, Jacqui Brownhill, at the time a programme manager in the sector. Later when the pandemic broke out, the couple, who had moved to the UK, had some time to think, and spotted an opportunity to help mine clearance organisations spend less time mapping and more time clearing mines.

Mapping is one of the trickiest aspects of mine clearance. It entails knowing precisely where the boundaries of minefields are; which areas have been cleared and which areas remain uncleared. With Truong’s knowledge of the limitations of mine clearance, the couple decided to try and make this painstaking part of the process easier, and founded startup MiFi Maps.

From tractor auto-steer to precision mine mapping

Landmines may be banned by international law, but they’re still a huge threat to life in current and former conflict zones. According to UK-based landmine clearance charity (and one of Truong’s former employers), the HALO Trust, over 5,700 civilians were killed or injured by landmines or explosives in 2023.

Before a minefield can be cleared, the team on the ground must first find out where exactly it is. That often means speaking to the local community, as in some cases, a person, vehicle or animal may accidentally have triggered a mine. Then, they draw a rough map, and survey the area in detail, either by finding the mines themselves with metal detectors, or by spotting evidence of mines, such as blast craters.

Only then can clearance start. You might picture people with metal detectors, excavating metallic signals to determine if it’s a piece of scrap or a mine. There are also mine detection dogs, which sniff out explosives and sit down by the trace, ready for their handler to mark the spot; and armoured clearing vehicles, which plough the earth to push buried objects to the surface.

After disposing any mines unearthed in the process, the team has to record the area that’s been cleared. More often than not, this involves old school tools: a compass, tape measure, and a hand-drawn map, which “takes forever, and it’s a real pain,” says Truong. Some teams use a smartphone or tablet, but it’s not ideal, as GPS can be off by three metres or more.

Truong’s solution was inspired by tractor auto-steer, itself underpinned by a well-established technology called real-time kinematics. Real-time kinematics corrects GPS errors caused by interference from atmospheric conditions, and increases positional accuracy from over three metres to within a few centimetres.

Setting up real-time kinematics involves first setting up a lightweight, portable base station with a known position, explains Truong. The base station receives satellite signals, calculates errors, and then transmits this error correction to ‘roving’ (movable) devices. For MiFi Maps, the roving devices are attached to a metal detector, or to a dog or mine clearing vehicle, mapping clearance as it happens.

“It saves everybody a lot of time and effort, so that they're not having to go in after the fact and then draw their map by hand or save GPS coordinates on their phone,” explains Truong. “And it will be done to centimetre accuracy, rather than maybe being off by three metres or more, which, depending on where the minefield is, can be quite crucial.” Aside from knowing the data is more accurate, it ultimately saves mine clearance professionals time and resources. Rather than taking a day or two to map a minefield, that time can go towards further clearance in the area.

Truong and Brownhill are now focused on making the roving devices even smaller and lighter. They have also developed a version that operates without the need for a base station. By using precise point positioning, which receives GPS corrections directly from a satellite or the mobile phone network, the system can achieve accuracy of less than 20 centimetres without the need for additional equipment. This makes the system more versatile and portable, important when operating in challenging environments

As an engineer with a background in explosive ordnance disposal, developing the technology behind MiFi Maps has been a new experience for Truong. Nevertheless, the company has already attracted attention from humanitarian mine action groups. It has signed a memorandum of understanding with Norwegian People’s Aid, an Oslo-based charity that works internationally, and conducted a field demo for the organisation in Bosnia in May 2025. The team has also secured grant funding from Innovate UK, the Business Growth Hub, and the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Regional Talent Engines programme; and aims to conduct further field testing in different countries in the coming months.

As MiFi Maps’ technology continues field testing, the hope is that the technology will be embraced by mine action organisations worldwide, transforming the way mapping is carried out in the sector. By making the process more accurate and far less resource- and time-intensive, it allows greater focus on the most critical task of all: clearing landmines and explosive ordnance.