Laboratory verification for a forward-looking multi-receiver mine-detection GPR

Ground penetration radar (GPR) is currently regarded as an option for the detection of antipersonnel mines. However, on the way to operational GPR systems, major difficulties, e.g., surface reflection, limited penetration of the soil, the required fine resolution and a high clutter level have to be faced. Low operating frequencies and very wide bandwidths are necessary to achieve ground penetration of least 0.2 m and a resolution of the order of a few centimeters. In the present paper, a GPR-SAR system configuration aiming at the detection of buried antipersonnel mines by means of a handheld device is examined by laboratory measurements. The system operates in the near range above the ground and utilizes two antennas in different transmit and receive combinations for data acquisition. The antennas can be oriented in a down- or a forward-looking manner. The laboratory setup utilizes a vector network analyzer as stepped-frequency instrumentation radar. A tomographic imaging scheme is used to focus 3D radar images from the measured data