Ground standoff mine detection system (GSTAMIDS) block 0 contractor test results

Abstract

Under contact to the United States Army, EG&G Technical Services currently is conducting field tests of the Ground Standoff Mine Detection System (GSTAMIDS) Block 0 Engineering, Manufacturing and Development (EMD) systems. GSTAMIDS is a spiral development effort designed to provide the war fighter an incremental, near-term capability to execute on-road countermine missions. GSTAMIDS is being developed in three distinct blocks. The primary mission for GSTAMIDS Block 0 is route clearance, automatically detecting and marking all metallic and non-metallic Anti-Tank (AT) mines. It consists of a Mine Detection and marking System (MDS) mounted on a teleoperated Mine Detection Vehicle (MDV) and a Main Computer System (MCS) mounted in a Mine Protected Clearance Vehicle (MPCV). Both vehicles have overpass capability for AT mines, as well as armor anti-mine blast protection. The MPCV mounted MCS receives sensor data, along with inertial navigation data, from the MDS via an RF PCM telemetry link, automatically processes and fuses the data for mine detection and sends mine marking commands back to the MDV. The MDS sensors provide a three-meter detection swath and include nine (9) Ground Penetrating Radars (GPR), nine (9) Pulsed Magnetic Induction (PMI) metal detectors, and (as an option) two (2) long-wave infrared (LWIR) cameras. Contractor testing includes raw sensor data collection and sensor evaluation, performance (Pd and FAR), operating and storage environment, and EMI/EMC radiated emissions and susceptibility, as well as maintenance demonstrations. Testing has been conducted at a number of test mine lanes in different climates under a wide range of weather conditions over the past year and a half. This paper will present contractor test results to date.