Humanitarian Demining : UAV-Based Detection of Land Mines
Reinhard Gottwald, Winfried Mayer & Nando Docci
The humanitarian clearance of land mines is still a huge challenge: - According to UN requirements at least 99.6% of all mines must be cleared up to a depth of 13 cm, - There are different types and sizes of mines (metal, minimum metal, non-metal) - Mines were placed in different environments (city, jungle, desert) regularly or irregularly and can be redistributed by erosion and surface movements. In 2015 a feasibility study [Gottwald et al, 2015] proved the possibilities of a UAV-based mine detection system for the automatic detection and localization of landmines. Since early 2016, in a cooperation of three Swiss and German Universities, a UAV-based system for mine detection has been in development. This system will be used in the process of land release (a very important part of mine action). The system consists simply of a 5kg payload drone, a low-cost RTK-GNSS system, cameras for a photogrammetric production of a DTM, microwave sensors for mine detection and an anti-collision system. One of the key problems is the required high position- and orientation-accuracy of the drone to operate the microwave mine detection sensors (SAR / GPR) properly. The whole system will be designed for easy use by minimally trained operators. This paper focuses on the current state of the project and on future perspectives and challenges. This project is supported by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GIHCD) and is financed by the Swiss 'Foundation Urs Endress', Arlesheim/Switzerland.
Event: FIG Working Week 2017 : Surveying the World of Tomorrow : From Digitalisation to Augmented Reality
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