Chapter 3: Vehicle-Mounted GPR System for Landmine Detection

28 3. Vehicle-Mounted GPR System for Landmine Detection
is scanned by a robot arm mechanically. Hence, data quality would be stable, and
the sensor can be scanned automatically resulting in the system to become of high
efficiency. The goal is for the surveying time including data acquisition, processing,
and interpretation to be within 10 minutes for 1 sq. m.
The image reconstruction uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology, thus
the system is named SAR-GPR. The development of SAR-GPR is under a program
“Research and Development of Sensing Technology, Access and Control Technology
to Support Humanitarian Demining of Antipersonnel Mines” founded by Japanese
Science and Technology Agency (JST), which the competent authority is Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).
3.2 Development of the System
3.2.1 Hardware configuration
Fig. 3.1 shows the system diagram. When the sensor allocates a measurement
position, the vehicle sends a trigger signal to the vector network analyzer (VNA)
controller. The controller triggers the data acquisition by the VNA and the metal
detector. The acquired data is buffered to the controller for the radar data and to PC
Ethernet
PC for
MD
PC for
GPR
RS232C
Trg
Ethernet
Metal
detector
VNA #1
VNA #2
Trg
VNA
controller
VNA #3
Vehicle
Antennas
Fig. 3.1: System diagram of the vehicle-mounted GPR system, SAR-GPR.
MD
sensor
head