GPR for Anti-Personnel Landmine Detection: Results of Experimental and Theoretical Studies

摘要

For the past three years, we have been systematically exploring the issues involved in using ground penetrating radar (GPR) for anti-personnel (AP) landmine detection. Our focus has been on testing and understanding the basic issues using existing commercial GPR. We have investigated the following factors affecting landmine detection: mine characteristics, soil physical properties, soil water content, surface roughness, antenna height and signal polarization. Field testing in controlled conditions and numerical techniques have been used to parametrically study response factors. Based on our research, the AP landmine fabrication characteristics are critical in determining the magnitude and response character, spatial processing is essential to see the targets against background variability, optimal spectral bandwidth is 500 to 2000 MHz and the practical issues of deploying sensors in rough field conditions are a major challenge.