Famously, the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944/45 was one of the largest and bloodiest armed conflict of the Second World War. Taking place in densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg, it was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. Researchers have used drone-mounted LiDAR – which emits pulses of light to create 3D models and maps – to'see through' the thick forest canopy. They found nearly 1,000 features within the landscape, including dugouts, bomb craters and even artillery emplacements where troops positioned their guns. Pictured are LiDAR images from the study.

There's still no completely safe and surefire method for locating unexploded ordinance after a war is over, but researchers at Ohio State University have found a way to harness image processing algorithms, powered by machine learning, to study satellite imagery and locate hot spots where UXO are likely to be located. The researchers focused their efforts on a 100-square-kilometre area near Kampong Trabaek, Cambodia, which was the target of carpet-bombing missions carried out by the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. The team was given access to declassified military data that revealed that 3,205 bombs had been dropped in the area between 1970 and 1973. Determining exactly how many of those bombs didn't explode has gotten harder and harder as, six decades later, nature has slowly reclaimed the country's heaviest hit areas, hiding and obscuring the craters that are counted and used to make accurate estimates. The OSU study used a two-step process to come up with a more accurate estimate of how many bombs were still left in the area.

Jennifer Griffin takes us back through the history of US-Vietnam relations. Researchers at Ohio State University are using satellite images and sophisticated artificial intelligence technology to search for unexploded bombs from the Vietnam War. The technology already has been used to survey Vietnam War-era bomb craters in Cambodia. "The new method increased true bomb crater detection by more than 160 percent over standard methods," researchers explain in a statement. "The model, combined with declassified U.S. military records, suggests that 44 to 50 percent of the bombs in the area studied may remain unexploded."

Researchers have used artificial intelligence to detect Vietnam War-era bomb craters in Cambodia from satellite images – with the hope that it can help find unexploded bombs. The new method increased true bomb crater detection by more than 160 percent over standard methods. The model, combined with declassified U.S. military records, suggests that 44 to 50 percent of the bombs in the area studied may remain unexploded. As of now, attempts to find and safely remove unexploded bombs and landmines – called demining – has not been as effective as needed in Cambodia, said Erin Lin, assistant professor of political science at The Ohio State University. She cites a recent UN-commissioned report that has criticized the Cambodian national clearance agency for presenting a picture of rapid progress by focusing on areas at minimal or no risk of having unexploded mines.

Researchers have used artificial intelligence (AI) to detect Vietnam War-era bomb craters in Cambodia from satellite images – with the hope that it can help find unexploded bombs in near future. The new method increased true bomb crater detection by more than 160 per cent over standard methods, they said. The model, combined with declassified US military records, suggests that 44 to 50 per cent of the bombs in the area studied may remain unexploded. "As of now, attempts to find and safely remove unexploded bombs and landmines – called demining – has not been as effective as needed in Cambodia," said study researcher Erin Lin from Ohio State University in the US. For the findings, published in the journal PLOS One, the researchers started with a commercial satellite image of a 100-square-kilometre area near the town of Kampong Trabaek in Cambodia.