Next on the list is a mechanism for removing mines which poses less risk to the operator than probing and excavating, where there is always a risk of detonating the mine or triggering a booby trap. The mechanical device may be nothing more elaborate than a piece of metal bent into a clever shape, activated a distance by a rope. Nobody has, to date, developed anything which works.

Lower priority items include a way to identify mined regions and map the perimeter of the field without sending people in to do the job. Some helicopter-based sensors under development for military applications may be useful in humanitarian demining as well.

In cases where in-place destruction makes sense (or is required by mandate), a way to destroy mines at a distance would avoid sending somebody into the field to set a donor charge and detonate it. Some experiments have been done with large-calibre sniper rifles, without sufficient success for the technique to be adopted.

In the longer term, robotic mapping and disposal may reduce the need to send people into the minefield at all, and if the robots are cheap and have some degree of autonomy, can increase clearance rates by working in parallel.