How a Tumbleweed can Destroy Landmines
Posted: January 26, 2013 Filed under: Beauty of Design | Tags: biomimicry case studies, biomimicry tumbleweed, play and innovation 4 CommentsThanks to a friend, Paul Dowsett from Sustainable.TO for sending me this gem.
Massoud Hassani took inspiration from tumbleweeds as a child to create toys that raced across the desert. As an Industrial Designer he is making tumbleweeds that can bounce across desert landscapes filled with landmines, detonating them as they go. I hope this means that there is more space for them to play games. This is a lovely story of childhood curiosity leading to innovation.
Enjoy the movie below, it is gorgeous. And if you want to see images of the process and alternate prototoypes, Core 77 has an excellent article.
Bouncing Ideas 
While this is a beautiful story the Kafons will not be effective. Check out this simulation of kafons to see. http://www.statisticsblog.com/2013/01/simulation-of-landmine-clearing-with-massoud-hassanis-mine-kafon/
Hi, and a huge thanks for posting a link to your work. I know very little about probability and statistics so it was fascinating to read. I’m curious about what is you define as “effective”?
I enjoy the conclusions of Matt Asher regarding the tumbleweed as a “test fir the presence of mines in an area.”
Is it possible to use the probability and statistics to suggest what could be improved by the tumbled weeds? E.g. if they have more surface area and a more linear movement, would that be better?
My passion is for iteration of thinking, and would love to see the next phase due to this research…
[…] included tumbleweeds as a mine clearance device, as suggested by Massoud Hassani. Through reading Carl Hastrichs coverage of the topic, I found this fascinating, and to my mind well performed statistical analysis of their usage, […]
[…] included tumbleweeds as a mine clearance device, as suggested by Massoud Hassani. Through reading Carl Hastrichs coverage of the topic, I found this fascinating, and to my mind well performed statistical analysis of their usage, […]