Research of Ground-Penetrating Radar for Detection of Mines and Unexploded Ordnance: Current Status and Research Strategy

摘要

This report documents the results of an IDA assessment of the state of research on ground penetrating radar (GPR) as applied to countermine and unexploded ordnance clearance. This report examines existing GPR research and development efforts with emphasis on missions where GPR has the potential to provide a unique capability and to achieve operationally meaningful performance. We identify data collections and analyses that will be necessary both to make decisions about the suitability of GPR for particular missions and to achieve performance gains necessary for operational utility. The potential capabilities of ground penetrating radar could, if realized, make it a useful tool for the detection of mines and UXO. Discrimination of targets from clutter is the fundamental problem to be solved to improve GPR target detection performance. Among the numerous research efforts that must be undertaken to advance GPR in any application are soil characterization, discrimination, and modeling. Since it is likely that radar will be paired with another sensor for any application, research to support sensor fusion is important.