Validation of a UAV-mounted GPR system for landmine and IED detection under operational conditions

Abstract

In this contribution, the performance of a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system mounted on board an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to detect buried landmines and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) is analyzed. Radar measurements are coherently combined using a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) algorithm complemented with several clutter mitigation techniques. As a result, 3D high-resolution radar images of the subsurface with enhanced signal-to-clutter-ratio are retrieved. Several prototypes and different GPR architectures have been extensively tested in realistic scenarios, where numerous metallic and non-metallic targets (landmines and IEDs) have been buried under different conditions (dry and wet fields, dirt roads, sloped terrains).