Optronic line scanning remote sensing for initial detection of land mines

The authors discuss the mine threat to be detected, the environmental factors which may affect the detection and the various functions needed for mine disposal. They then describe the optronic line scanning method. A line scanner scans laterally, i.e. transversally, only a line or a limited group of lines and needs the movement of the platform to perform scanning in the other longitudinal direction. Scanning is performed either opto-mechanically thanks to a rotating mirror or electronically by means of large linear arrays of photodetectors with integration, possibly time delay, and CCD read-out. The advantage is to avoid the redundancy of scanning the scene. The authors describe the CRECERELLE French Army UAV system comprising a CYCLOPE sensing suite of 2 line scanners. A first one operates in the visible spectral bandwidth while the second in the long wave infrared (8 to 12 microns)