Advanced Acousto-Ultrasonic Landmine Detector for Humanitarian Mine Sweeping

Deployed landmines lie hidden and active for years, a long time after the causative factors have ceased to exist. There are an estimated 50 to 60 million land mines buried in about 70 countries throughout the world. A UN estimate puts the number of people killed or maimed due to mine explosions to over 26000 per year. Detection of buried mines has assumed great importance during war and postwar situations, due to this. Acousto-ultrasonic Landmine Detector (ALMD) developed by Strategic Electronics Group of C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram, India, is a vehicle mountable acoustic land mine sweeping system for locating buried anti-personnel (APM) and anti-tank mines(ATM). It detects buried mines, both plastic and metal, under different soil conditions-wet or dry, using innovative Non-contact ultrasonic Technology. ALMD discriminates mines from other buried objects through real time continuous Acoustic Resonance Imaging, and has a ground scan capability of 7000 sq cm per second. This paper explains the innovation, technology development and field trial results of the Acousto-ultrasonic Landmine Detector realized at CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram.