Landmine detection using passive hyperspectral imaging

Abstract

Airborne hyperspectral imaging has been studied since the late 1980s as a tool to detect minefields for military countermine operations and for level I clearance for humanitarian demining. Hyperspectral imaging employed on unmanned ground vehicles may also be used to augment or replace broadband imagers to detect individual mines. This paper will discuss the ability of different optical wavebands - the visible/near infrared (VNIR), shortwave infrared (SWIR) and thermal infrared (TIR) - to detect surface-laid and buried mines. The phenomenology that determines performance in the different bands is discussed. Hyperspectral imagers have usually been designed and built for general purpose remote sensing applications and often do not meet the requirements of mine detection. The DRDC mine detection research program has sponsored the development by Itres Research of VNIR, SWIR and TIR instruments specifically intended for mine detection. The requirements for such imagers are described, as well as the instruments. Some results of mine detection experiments are presented. To date, reliable day time detection of surface-laid mines in non-real-time, independent of solar angle, time of day and season has been demonstrated in the VNIR and SWIR. Real-time analysis, necessary for military applications, has been demonstrated from low speed ground vehicles and recently from airborne platforms. Reliable, repeatable detection of buried mines has yet to be demonstrated, although a recently completed TIR hyperspectral imager will soon be tested for such a capability.