Acoustical and Doppler Radar Detection of Buried Landmines Using High-Pressure Water Jets

The goal of the waterjet-based mine location and identification project is to find a way to use waterjets to locate and differentiate buried objects. When a buried object is struck with a high-pressure waterjet, the impact will cause characteristic vibrations in the object depending on the object\u27s shape and composition. These vibrations will be transferred to the ground and then to the water stream that is hitting the object. Some of these vibrations will also be transferred to the air via the narrow channel the waterjet cuts in the ground. Currently the ground vibrations are detected with Doppler radar and video camera sensing, while the air vibrations are detected with a directional microphone. Data is collected via a Labview based data acquisition system. This data is then manipulated in Labview to produce the associated power spectrums. These power spectra are fed through various signal processing and recognition routines to determine the probability of there being an object present under the current test location and what that object is likely to be. Our current test area consists of a large X-Y positioning system placed over approximately a five-foot circular test area. The positioning system moves both the waterjet and the sensor package to the test location specified by the Labview control software. Currently we are able to locate buried land mine models at a distance of approximately three inches with a high degree of accuracy