Acoustic technology for land mine detection - Past tests, present requirements, and future concepts

A recent blind test and two data collections at the U.S. Army mine test lanes at Ft. A.P. Hill have demonstrated the great potential for the use of acoustic technology to detect buried land mines. The acoustic system built by the University of Mississippi under a contract with the Night Vision & Electronic Sensors Directorate demonstrated a very high probability of detection, a very low false alarm rate, extremely good location accuracy, and significant standoff potential. A large number of papers are being presented at this conference that deal with various specific aspects of this program. This paper will present a broad but technical overview of this program. We will describe the capabilities of this approach and the areas in which improvements are being addressed. We will discuss briefly fusion with additional sensors, which will illustrate the manner in which acoustic technology can be integrated with other sensors to form a viable and robust mine detection system. We will present the present Army requirements and operational concepts that would meet these requirements.