From September 27 to 29, Lviv hosted Ukraine’s largest tech event — IT Arena 2024. This international conference brings together representatives of the tech industry, startups, and investors from around the world. This year, Rovertech participated in the event, presenting its flagship product — the Zmiy (Zmiy) remote demining system, as part of the defense track.
Rovertech demonstrated how the GRCS Zmiy can change the approach to demining in Ukraine and the world. Company co-founder Boris Drozhak spoke on the IT Arena stage, emphasizing the scale of the problem: in Ukraine, over 174,000 square kilometers of territory are potentially mined, where 6.1 million people live. As a result, farmers lose $11.2 billion annually due to the inability to cultivate their lands. Solving this problem using traditional methods would take 755 years and astronomical costs — an amount sufficient to build 740 skyscrapers like the Burj Khalifa.
However, the Zmiy robot sapper can accelerate this process tens of times. This solution is 80 times cheaper than existing counterparts, providing effective and safe demining of large territories in a significantly shorter time. In addition to economic benefits, Zmiy also saves lives by reducing risks for sappers and civilians.
GRCS Zmiy is already certified for humanitarian demining and has received NATO codification. This opens the door for Rovertech to collaborate with international partners. The company, in cooperation with Demine Ukraine, is working to ensure a demining speed of up to 10 hectares per day with a single sapper team.
The social importance of this project is very high. Demining will allow farmers to return to work, restoring the productivity of Ukrainian lands. It will also facilitate the safe return of millions of people to normal life. Thus, the Zmiy mine-clearer from Rovertech will contribute to the economic recovery of Ukraine.
Rovertech also congratulates the winning startups of IT Arena 2024, which received investments to scale their innovations. This event once again confirmed that technology can address the most pressing challenges of our time.
