ROADSIDE OBSCURED OBJECT DETECTION (ROOD)

The ability to detect IEDs is important because they pose a significant threat to ground forces, and are becoming a common tactical weapon around the world. According to the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) in its 2010 Annual Report,"IEDs continued to be the main threat to coalition forces (CF) in both Afghanistan and Iraq.IEDs increased as the weapon of choice for global insurgents and terrorists with an average of more than 260 IED incidents per month outside of Afghanistan and Iraq. Device effectiveness and lethality continued to improve in diverse regions around the world."There were 12,286 IED-related casualties outside of Iraq and Afghanistan between January and November of 2011 in 111 countries. This project will design and development of algorithms to use intensity and range information generated from a LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) sensor to detect emplaced Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) concealed in roadside vegetation. A crucial constraint on potential approaches imposed by the topic definition is that the target geometries are variable and not known a-priori. The scale of the targets of interest (~30 60 cm in height) combined with the degree of occlusion by concealing vegetation (~30 70%) requires fusing information from multiple LIDAR scans taken while in motion in order to have data of sufficient density for reliable detection.