Active and passive microwave multi-sensor system for anti-personal mine detection

The major problems of the presently available mine detection equipment are its reliability, the safety of the operators, and the efficiency limited by the very high number of false alarms. Consequently, the principal goals of the authors´ project supported by the European Community for a modern, reliable, efficient and handheld mine detection system must be focused on the following key requirements: The system should be capable of detecting small surface and subsurface plastic mines with very low metal content under most environmental conditions; the detection probability should be maximised; the hardware expense should be as most cost-effective as possible. Following previous investigations the authors believe that these very complex tasks can be fulfilled by a multi-sensor system consisting of a metal detector, a ground penetrating radar, and a microwave radiometer. This paper considers only the microwave part of the system