Project 02
Landmine Face Shield
Client: HALO Trust & MIT
Role: Industrial Designer & Engineer
How might we improve safety compliance for landmine deminers when existing PPE fails in the field?
Landmine clearance is still a human process. Robotic excavation is growing but humans remain essential because they are precise, scalable, and fast in ways machines aren't yet. That also means the people doing this work are exposed to real risk, and the equipment protecting them has to actually work.
This project started as a collaboration between RISD, MIT engineers, and MBA students focused on landmine clearance. Our original scope was extraction, but the testing implications, live ordnance and campus restrictions, made that direction impossible. We had to pivot fast.
The Research
Without direct access to deminers, I had to find proxy ways to understand their needs. I pulled accident reports from humanitarian organizations, leveraged AI to convert the data into something usable, and used data analysis to identify patterns. The two clearest opportunities were hand tools and PPE. I cold-outreached across the humanitarian demining community and eventually connected with HALO Trust, the leading organization in the field. They validated our PPE direction.
The Problem
The existing face shield weighs roughly 1.5 to 2 pounds and sits on a fabric harness that stretches over time. When it loosens, deminers either over-tighten it uncomfortably or stop wearing it properly. A shield that falls off during a detonation provides no fragmentation protection. Safety compliance was the real design problem.
The Direction
Rather than redesigning the shield itself, our prototypes explore offloading the weight to the shoulders instead of the head and neck. Removing the load from the harness removes the compliance problem at its source.
This project is ongoing. Current work is focused on refining the shoulder-support harness system.
Prototype Testing
Because we couldn’t get our hands on the orginal design, we made proxy assumptions that anchored our prototying testing. Our prototyping materials including 3D printed parts, scrap shields, small weights, duct tape and a lot of it, reused backpack straps, cardboard, and more tape.