Airborne sensors for detection of mines and IEDs 22-24
Publish date: 2024-12-16
Report number: FOI-R--5676--SE
Pages: 22
Written in: Swedish
Keywords:
- IED
- RPAS
- mines
- airborne sensors
- NLJD
- GPR
- metal detector
- UAS
Abstract
The project "Airborne sensors for detection of mines and IEDs 22-24" evaluated different electromagnetic sensors regarding their suitability for integration onto remotely piloted aerial systems. The evaluated sensor types are non-linear junction detectors, metal detectors, ground penetrating radar, explosive detection through nuclear quadrupole resonance, magnetometers and cable detectors. Non-linear junction detectors (NLJD) was integrated onto a Remotely Piloted Aerial System (RPAS) and participated in a Nato trial as well as a demonstration the final year of the project. The NLJD integration showed live detections on large leds on the RPAS while flying. Tests of metal detectors susceptibility to RPAS-caused self-interference showed that an RPAS without interference mitigations will have significantly impaired detection performance. Further work is required to develop the proper mitigations to retain full performance. Ground penetrating radar was the most promising candidate for detecting mines with low or no metal content where the mines contain no electronics. These mines have such low signature that they are extremely difficult to detect. Further work is required to improve detection performance for these targets. Nuclear quadrupole resonance detection was tested and showed great material specificity, it was however quite slow and required a low interference environment for useful results. A magnetometer system was evaluated together with Drones2Ukraine to evaluate performance with real targets before sending the sensor to Ukraine. Cable detector systems was studied superficially since they did not fit the projects scenario description. Presumably, a cable detector could be fitted onto an RPAS but some interference mitigation is likely required.