DEVELOPMENT OF A RADAR MINE DETECTOR

THIS PROPOEAL RELATES TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RADAR BASED MINE DETECTOR FOR METALLIC AND NON-METALLIC, BURIED MINES USING EXISTING STATE-OF-THE-ART HIGH RESOLUTION, GROUND PENETRATING RADAR (GPR) FOR VEHICULAR AND MAN-PORTABLE USE. THIS RESEARCH WILL ATTEMPT TO (1) VERIFY THAT GPR IS A VIABLE TECHNIQUE FOR MINE DETECTION BASED ON ANALYTICAL MODELING OF RADIO FREQUENCY PROPAGATION IN LOSSY DIELECTRIC MEDIA, (2) DETERMINE RADAR EQUIPMENT SPECIFICATIONS NECESSARY FOR SUCCESSFUL MINE DETECTION BASED ON US ARMY REQUIREMENTS, AND EVALUATION OF CURRENT PENETRADAR CORPORATION GPR RADAR EQUIPMENT FOR THIS APPLICATION, (3) DEFINE THE OPTIMUM RADAR SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES FOR USE IN PHASE II AND DETERMINE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR SIGNAL PROCESSING HARDWARE/GOFTWARE RELATIVE TO THE CONSTRAINTS RESULTING FROM VEHICULAR AND MAN-PORTABLE USE, AND (4) DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXPERIMENTAL METHOD, TO BE USED IN PHASE II, TO VALIDATE ANALYTICAL RESULTS. FOUNDERS OF THE PROPOSING ORGANIZATION HAVE HAD CONSIDERABLE EXPERIENCE IN RADAR MINE DETECTION WITH THE DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN OF PREVIOUS EXPERIMENTAL ARMY RADAR MINE DETECTION TECHNOLOGY AND EQUIPMENT. THE PROPOSED EFFORT WILL EXTEND UPON THIS PREVIOUS WORK IN NON-METALLIC MINE DETECTION.