Massoud Hassani's Mine Kafon is composed almost entirely from bamboo and biodegradable plastics, with a skeletal structure of spiky plungers that resembles a giant spherical tumbleweed from another planet.
At 70 kilogrammes, Hassani says his invention is light enough to be propelled by a normal breeze, while still being heavy and big enough - 190cm in diameter - to activate mines as it rolls over them.
According to the UN, there are more than 110 million active mines scattered across 70 countries.
Manual diffusion by trained mine-clearing experts remains the most common method of removal globally. But this method can be prohibitively expensive - in some cases it costs thousands of dollars to clear just a single mine.
By contrast, Hassani claims the Mine Kafon -- which includes a basic Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking device used to record the area "cleared" by its tumbling path - costs as little as USD 40 to build.
"The core sphere that contains the GPS system is high enough from the ground to avoid damage from most anti- personnel mines," explained Hassani.
The lengths of the spikes are based on the height of an adult's leg - because the kinds of mines that it is designed to clear are those that will take a leg off below the waist of an adult.
"So, as it moves the spikes get blown off, but the center stays intact," Hassani said. "It can withstand up to four explosions before it loses too many of its legs to carry on."
As a young kid growing up in Afghanistan, Hassani made up games and created his own toys.
After his father was killed in a rocket attack during the late 1980s, Hassani fled Afghanistan with family. Living first in Uzbekistan, he then became a refugee in Holland, where he went on to study at the Design Academy in Eidenhoven.
This year, a full-scale mock-up was tested in the deserts around Morocco and Hassani hopes to fund-raise USD 100,000 so he can engineer the design to be mass produced.
However, some are skeptical about Mine Kafon's chances of ever meeting the official International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) -- considered to be the minimum grade of delivery for responsible mine clearing operations.
"There are many citizens who live in mine-affected areas who carry out their own DIY clearances, and while this is noble it is also very dangerous," explained Adam Komorowski, head of operations at the UK-based Mine Advisory Group.
Hassani says he is aware of these limitations, and claims to have a number of solutions in the pipeline.
"We are developing a remote-controlled model with a motor and a metal detector -- so that even if it fails to detonate a mine, it should map-out the presence of metal structures underneath," he said.
