Low-altitude autonomous drone navigation for landmine detection purposes

Abstract

This paper proposes an integrated system architecture composed by a custom-designed lightweight Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and a novel method for low-altitude autonomous flight called Backstepping+DAF. Simulations and experimental results are carried out to evaluate how steady flight is achieved by means of the proposed flight controller that consequently enables the GPR detection of buried objects with similar materials and morphology of real explosive landmines.