Landmine detection using frequency domain features from GPR measurements and their fusion with time domain features

Abstract

We present in this paper the use of frequency domain features deduced from the energy density spectrum to improve the detection of landmines. The energy density spectrum is obtained from the GPR measurements at an alarm location, and a method to estimate the energy density spectrum is proposed. The energy density spectrum is shown to reveal distinct characteristics between landmine and clutter objects and therefore can be explored for their discrimination. The robustness and consistency of the frequency domain features are demonstrated through two different GPRs. The fusion of frequency domain features and time-domain features is also examined. Experimental results at several test sites confirm the advantages of frequency domain features to better discriminate between mine targets and clutter objects, and the effectiveness of fusion in frequency and time domain features to improve detection performance.