Real-Time Vehicle-Mounted Multistatic Ground Penetrating Radar Imaging System for Buried Object Detection

Abstract

A multistatic ground penetrating radar system is described, capable of real-time imaging and object detection. The radar consists of 16 transmitter and receiver pairs mounted across the front of a vehicle. The transmitters operate sequentially with all receivers activated for each transmit pulse. The resulting frame of 256 multistatic time signals is processed into an image using a tomographic reconstruction technique. In this paper we describe the system architecture, signal conditioning, and reconstruction algorithm for producing a sequence of images in real time as the vehicle travels across the ground. We demonstrate a robust image post-processing method that separates the bright spot corresponding to the dominant buried object in an image frame from the background. This is essential before calculating an energy-based statistic for automatic detection of buried objects. This spot ratio detection statistic, based on energy both inside and outside the spot, is shown to be not only more stationary than spot energy (i.e. mostly free of localized trends due to changing ground conditions), but also more powerful as a detection statistic. Finally, we demonstrate that multistatic imaging significantly improves the detection performance over more conventional monostatic array processing.

The power of collective intelligence in a signal detection task

“…In order to compare both the relative impact of the display redesign and the use of collective intelligence, Table 1 summarises the FPRs for various individuals and groups for the experiment detailed previously for two given TPR thresholds of 80% and 90%. These thresholds are typical for GPR systems (Chambers et al 2013). The "Interface FPR Difference" column of Table 1 displays the per cent decrease in FPRs for users of the new interface as compared to the old interface.…”

Modeling Buried Object Brightness and Visibility for Ground Penetrating Radar

“…A multi-static radar array used in this study (denoted Array 3) mounted on a ground-based GPR system. [18] II. BURIED OBJECT BRIGHTNESS To develop the brightness metric, we use tomographic images from processed multi-static radar signals.…”

“…Therefore, previous analyses of experimentally collected mono-static signals [2], [11], [17], [20] do not directly apply. See [16], [18], and [21] for further GPR system details. In this work, each observation of an object is represented as a single scalar metric, the object's relative brightness.…”

Buried threat detection using a handheld ground penetrating radar system

“…Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is an effective sensor for detecting buried threats [1,2,3,4,5]. In recent years, a large amount of resources has been allocated towards improving GPR detection of mines via the Husky Mounted Detection System (HMDS) [2,3,4,5,6] .…”

“…In recent years, a large amount of resources has been allocated towards improving GPR detection of mines via the Husky Mounted Detection System (HMDS) [2,3,4,5,6] . In this work, we explore the efficacy of locating buried threats using a handheld GPR system.…”