Ground-Penetrating Radar for Minefield Detection and Mapping

The AES International Corporation (AESI) of College Station, Texas, in concert with Texas A&M University personnel, can build an airborne ground-penetrating radar system to detect land mines from an Unmanned Airborne Vehicle (UAV). The radar itself will be a totally new and fully airworthy flight demonstration unit, the principles and characteristics of which will be conceptually similar to two patented airborne ground-penetrating radar systems the company currently employs to detect buried unexploded ordinance and other hazardous materials. The UAV radar, however, will include new and innovative hardware and software tailored specifically for operation from the UAV that can also be used from manned airborne platforms for other military and commercial applications. Phase I will consist of four major technical studies that consider the ultimate radar and antenna systems design and construction in relation to the payload and performance envelope of the UAV. From preliminary radar design and performance studies already undertaken in-house, AESI does not consider the radar's payload and power budgets for the UAV to be major factors. However, the design and integration of the antenna system with the candidate radar and the UAV will be very important to the ultimate performance of the radar. Also of importance will be on-board signal generation and processing and ensuing data compression, transmission, processing, analysis and display. These tasks will address the trade-offs and options involved in the ultimate definition of the radar's frequency, bandwidth, pulse repetition rate, gain, range and transmission rates, and the design of the accompanying antenna system. The report on Phase I will clearly delineate the proposed design, construction, and flight testing of the total radar system in Phase II.