Detection of Buried Objects Using Ultra-Wideband Radar: Newly Launched Mine Detection Project in South Korea

摘要

Korea is one of the heavily mined countries in the world. The demand for mine detection and clearance techniques has always been high in South Korea. In support of this, a new project on ground penetrating radar (GPR) for landmine detection has been launched in South Korea. The GPR under development is an ultra wideband sensor system that requires high-resolution imaging of buried targets and database construction based on target signals in various ground conditions. For initial experiments, a simple GPR has been built using a resistive vee dipole antenna and a vector network analyzer. The GPR is scanned over a sand tank with an area of 2.5m × 2.5m and a depth of 1.5m, which is used for target burial. During the first stage of the project, the data obtained by scanning the GPR antenna over a target are processed to evaluate various radar signal waveforms, performance of various antennas, and other system configurations. Based on the evaluation, an advanced GPR system will be built and used to construct the database during the second stage of the project. A description for motivation for the GPR project, overview of the GPR project, experiment setup, and initial experiment results are presented in this paper.