Richard Yim moved to Toronto, Canada when he was aged 13, and later studied for his mechanical engineering degree.
He never forgot the dangers from UXOs that littered the countryside
“Wherever you go see, you see landmines; for me, it has always been a problem I’ve seen since I was young,” Yim recalled. “When I moved here to Canada is when I realized, one of the most basic freedom that people (have) is the freedom to walk, the ability to walk places without worry about stepping on explosives.”
“When I was young, the thought of running around in the jungle, in the forest, in the field, was absurd to my parents.”
Drawing inspiration from his past, Yim, as part of a project during his time at the University of Waterloo, decided to find a solution to the UXO problem himself.
Yim toured several minefields in Cambodia as well as completing an intensive demining program with the Cambodian Mine Action Center, says Demine Robotics has worked on four iterations of machines, each of which has been progressively more functional than the last to help rid the country of unexploded ordinances (UXOs).
The latest machine is being field tested in Ratanakiri province ( *believe it is called the Jevit), and is a remote-controlled excavator unit that has been designed to unearth anti-personal mines and other small-sized UXOs.