The detection and neutralization of anti-personnel mines and explosive devices is a major challenge in many countries around the world, also in Colombia. The fact that new mines and explosive devices are regularly placed there and that the number of victims, particularly among the civilian population, is still very high, shows the timeliness of this topic. The type of mine primarily used in Colombia is what are known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which are constructed and installed in a wide variety of forms. A characteristic of IEDs is the low proportion of metallic components, which makes it difficult to detect them using conventional means such as metal detectors. Within the German-Colombian cooperation project MEDICI, we are investigating the possibilities of detecting improvised explosive devices using ground-penetrating radar. Approaches that are being pursued here include, on the one hand, exploiting the characteristic frequency behavior of certain components of the explosive devices and, on the other hand, the use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to further improve the measurement data.

Project 'Medici'