...
Microprocessor and Interface Lab
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
DeTeC - Demining Technology Center at the EPFL
(Nov. 1995 - Dec. 1997)
Humanitarian Demining activities at LAMI started in 1994 on a mine
detection robot. They then concentrated within the DeTeC project
(1995-1997) on the development of a sensor suite for Antipersonnel Mine
Detection; DeTeC also actively supported the exchange of information on
demining technologies. Activities then continued at the EPFL-LAP by Claudio Bruschini
working on his PhD thesis (metal detectors) and on the EUDEM2 Survey, in cooperation
with VUB (Brussels), and independently by Frédéric Guerne
(mechanical systems).
Human demining related activities at the EPFL-LAP officially terminated at the end of 2004.
Information on DeTeC
Technical Material
General Information and Bookmarks
DeTeC Description
The Demining Technology Center has been supported in 1996-97 by the
Foundation Pro Victimis in Geneva, by the Swiss Departments of Foreign
and of Military Affairs, and by the EPFL.
This activity was triggered in 1994 by John Walker (http://www.fourmilab.ch/minerats/),
who encouraged and supported the development of the Pemex robot,
built by Ph. Maechler. Initial survey
activities were
carried out, a number of conferences attended and the WAPM'95 workshop
organised in Lausanne during the summer of 1995. DeTeC, a part of the
Microprocessors and Interfaces Lab (LAMI), was then
born at the end of 1995. It has been staffed with 5 engineers until the
end of 1997 (plus the support of the LAMI) and had three main
objectives:
To
evaluate by the end of 1997 a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) sensor
by doing
extensive data acquisition on real fields, in order to better
understand how to
develop a system that reduces significantly the false alarm rate,
through the combination of sensors, at least a metal detector (MD) and
a GPR. To investigate the possibility of extracting additional
information on the objects
under analysis from metal detector data. - To
participate
in long term research projects at the international level to develop
better
demining technologies (bio-sensors, low cost GPR, image processing,
sensor
fusion, robots, navigation sensors, etc.).
- To
encourage
information exchange on demining technologies, through the Web and
related
scientific conferences. To document research projects, to promote good
ideas and help to field test and manufacture them.
DeTeC Team
The team consisted in 1996-97 of the following
engineers:
Other strongly concerned persons were:
Prof
Jean-Daniel Nicoud: Coordination
DeTeC Manifesto
Engineers and other scientists can and should help in
accelerating the speed of demining, lowering its cost and reducing the
deminers' risks, by providing adequate - i.e. really usable in
the field and cost-effective - tools, sensors and platforms. The
problem is
complex, involving not only the detection of individual mines and
pieces of
Unexploded Ordnance (UXO), but also the decision to declare a given
area mine
free or the delimitation of its real extension in case it is mined. And
all this often in a number of very different scenarios.
Short to medium term "evolutionary" progress can come for example from
improvements to: metal detectors, which give too many false alarms but
indeed still represent a
very valuable tool in most situations; prodders; the utilisation of
dogs; protective equipment; remote detection of tripwires and
stake/bounding mines;
mechanical system, for example to remove the vegetation, and probably
many more similar items.
Medium to long term improvements are expected on the sensor side for
example from Ground Penetrating Radar and other microwave sensors;
infrared imaging; sensors capable of detecting the explosive itself,
i.e. trace explosive and odor detection systems (as an evolution of
dogs' capabilities) or bulk explosive detection systems, etc. Great
hope is also placed in multisensor devices and data fusion research, as
well as remote (airborne) minefield detection. |
| Research on enhanced or new sensors and systems for the
detection (and destruction) of landmines and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)
is urgent
and important. Include this topic in your research priorities, but do
not
forget to stay in contact with deminers and pay a visit to a real
minefield.
Any mine clearing method which is better than children's
feet should
be used until replaced by a better one - Prof S.H.Salter, Univ.
Edinburgh (1996)
|
Projects and
Documentation (DeTeC and following activities)
Activities/Projects:
- The
Pemex
Robot (1994-1995):
- We quickly realized at the beginning of the project that
the basic problem in humanitarian demining are still the sensors,
possibly
with the exception of specialized applications. In addition, the use of
the Pemex
robot
(external
Portrait Gallery) looks difficult to be generalized at the current
cost level, since deminers are not paid much more than 1000-2000 US$
per year in countries such as Angola and Cambodia. Developments on the
Pemex itself were therefore effectively frozen.
- Test
System (1996):
- A sand box with a Cartesian mechanism (gantry) for moving the
sensor over the buried objects was built in early 1996 and extensively
used to test different sensors,
for data acquisition and software development under different
conditions. See also the Current Status section below.
- Field
Visits (1996, 1997):
- Cambodia, November 1996; Croatia, Summer 1997; Cambodia, November
1997 (see
also the LAMI Documentation below).
- Workshops
organized (1995, 1997):
- 1995 WAPM Workshop at the EPFL.
SusDem97 Workshop in Zagreb.
Proceedings/Book
available from James Madison University (maic@jmu.edu).
- GPR
Developments (1996-1997):
- The initial goal was to effectively integrate a Ground
Penetrating Radar with a metal detector. Over time we concentrated our
efforts
on a more realistic, albeit more limited, scenario (given the deminers'
requirements, the time frame and the resources involved)
in which a GPR is used by itself on alarms previously identified by a
standard
metal detector, and the radar data is made widely available. In
parallel some
activities were ongoing on the evaluation of metal detector data.
A trip to Cambodia, November 1996, has allowed to see the conditions on
the field and prepare the data acquisition campaign carried out in
November 1997. Note that
we switched from a fully manual system (Detec-1) in mid 1997 to a final
mechanically assisted manual version (Detec-2) after the tests in
Croatia.
The raw data files taken in our sandbox as well as on the field are
available on this site and on CD-ROM for those of you interested in
developing
radar data (image) processing and recognition algorithms.
- Post-DeTeC Status and Web Info (1998):
- The projects we have co-submitted in 1996-97 to the European
Commission
were not accepted, and the DeTeC team does not exist any more.
Activities might nevertheless continue on a small scale, especially
where the accumulated experience can be best reused.
The DeTeC activities have been documented as much as possible (see
below),
and the same goes true for the material we acquired during the project
(documentation, links to other Web sites, etc. - see all the links at
the top).
This site is still fully functional, containing amongst other things an
extensive list of links and a large collection of GPR data. Parts of it
has been taken care of by Claudio Bruschini within the
framework of a VUB-EPFL collaboration.
The test system and the sensors have been transferred to the Free
University of Brussels (VUB, see also http://www.minedet.etro.vub.ac.be/),
where they will used in ongoing activities on the same subject and will
be available to those interested as it happened when the equipment was
installed
at the EPFL.
- The
EUDEM survey (1999) and EUDEM2 Support Measure (2001-2004):
- The EUDEM survey project (The European Union in Humanitarian
Demining) has been carried out as a VUB-EPFL collaboration. It was followed by the EUDEM2
three year EC sponsored support measure - please go directly to the EUDEM2 main page (http://www.eudem.vub.ac.be/) where the freeely
accessible EUDEM2 DATABASE itself is actually stored, together with all the project's
results.
Selected Documentation:
2001-2004
- EUDEM2 Reports
- See directly the EUDEM2 Website.
- Bruschini04
- C. Bruschini "On the Low Frequency EMI Response of Coincident Loops over a Conductive and Permeable Soil and Corresponding Background Reduction Schemes",
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 42, No. 8, Aug. 2004, pp. 1706-1719.
- BruschiniPhD
- C. Bruschini, ‘A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Frequency Domain Metal Detectors for Humanitarian Demining’. PhD Thesis,
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Belgium), Faculty of Applied Sciences, Sept. 2002, 230 pp., ISBN 3-89825-853-X.
Available online from http://www.eudem.vub.ac.be/ and
http://www.dissertation.de/.
- Bruschini01
- C. Bruschini "Commercial Systems for the
Direct Detection of Explosives (for Explosive Ordnance Disposal Tasks)"
(ExploStudy, Final Report). EPFL-DI-LAP
Internal Note, Feb. 2001, 68 pp. See also a list of related links.
PDF copy (246 kB),
compressed (zipped) PostScript version
(451 kB).
(2 pages per sheet: PDF copy (246
kB), compressed (zipped) PostScript
version (450 kB).) .
2000
- Bruschini00c
- C. Bruschini, H. Sahli "Phase angle
based
clutter reduction and 2D Imaging using data from a commercial
differential two
frequency EMI system",
Proc. Euro EM 2000
(EuroElectromagnetics), Edinburgh, Scotland, 30 May - 2 June 2000.
(PDF copy of Extended
abstract).
Copy of the slides are also
available (565 kB)
(PDF with images not downsampled
(better quality, 950 kB)).
- Cattin00
- V. Cattin, C. Bruschini, A. Guiga, J.M. Ittel, J.M. Léger,
J.C. Vidal "Landmine Detection System
with NMR Gradiometer",
Proc. Euro EM 2000
(EuroElectromagnetics), Edinburgh, Scotland, 30 May - 2 June 2000.
(PDF copy of Extended
abstract).
Copy of the slides are also
available (click on the individual images to enlarge). Contact Point:
Viviane Cattin, CEA-LETI.
- Bruschini00b
- C. Bruschini, H. Sahli "Phase angle
based EMI object discrimination and analysis of data from a commercial
differential two frequency system", SPIE AeroSense2000, Detection
and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets V,
SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4038, 24-28 April 2000, Orlando, FLA, USA.
PDF version (763 kB) and
PDF with images not downsampled
(better quality, 1.34 MB).
(A PDF copy in A4 format of the corresponding poster (421 kB) is also available
(PDF with images not downsampled
(better quality, 1.03 MB)).
- Bruschini00a
- C. Bruschini "Metal Detectors in Civil Engineering and
Humanitarian Demining: Overview and Tests of a Commercial Visualizing
System", INSIGHT -
Non-Destructive Testing and Condition Monitoring 42(2), pp. 89-97,
February 2000.
(PDF version (400 kB)
and PDF with images not downsampled
(better quality, 2.2 MB).
Published version of [Bruschini98b].)
1999
- Bruschini99b
- C. Bruschini "Metal Detectors for Humanitarian Demining: from
Basic
Principles to Modern Tools and Advanced Developments", Invited Paper, MINE'99
(Mine
Identification Novelties Euroconference), Florence (Italy), October
1-3,
pp. 24-30.
(PDF
version (168 kB) and PDF
with images not downsampled (better quality, 498 kB))
Copy of the slides
are also available (213 kB) (also page
12 in higher resolution).
- Bruschini99a
- C. Bruschini "Improvements in a "mature" technology: Metal
Detectors", Presentation (slides)
at the "Intelligent Sensors and Data Fusion for Humanitarian De-mining"
IST Consultation Meeting, 22/9/1999 (within the framework of the
preparation of the IST Workplan 2000).
- EUDEM
- C. Bruschini, K. de Bruyn, H. Sahli, J. Cornelis, J.-D. Nicoud
"EUDEM: The EU in Humanitarian DEMining - Final Report
(Study on the State of the Art in the EU related to humanitarian
demining technology, products and practice)", EPFL-LAMI and VUB-ETRO,
30/07/1999 (628 kB).
Smaller PDF files are also available: Header & Document Structure - Introduction; Methods; The EUDEM
Database (Ch. 1-3) - The State of
the Art in Europe (Ch. 4) - ...;
Conclusions and Discussions;
... (Ch. 5-8) - Annex 1-6
- Annex 7
Published in reduced form as: K. de Bruyn, C. Bruschini, H.
Sahli, J. Cornelis,
"EUDEM: The European Union in Humanitarian Demining", the Journal of Mine
Action,
Mine Action Information Center at James Madison University, Issue 4.1,
Spring 2000, pp. 4-7,73.
1998
- Bruschini98b
- C. Bruschini "Metal Detectors
in
Civil Engineering and Humanitarian Demining: Overview and Tests of a
Commercial Visualizing System". LAMI-EPFL Internal Note, Nov. 1998.
(PDF
version (397 kB) and PDF
with images not downsampled (better quality, 2.59 MB))
Published in INSIGHT -
Non-Destructive Testing and Condition Monitoring 42(2), pp. 89-97,
February 2000. See [Bruschini00a].
- Bruschini98a
- C. Bruschini, B. Gros, F. Guerne, P.-Y. Pièce, O. Carmona,
"Ground Penetrating Radar and Induction Coil Sensor Imaging for
Antipersonnel Mines Detection", Journal of Applied Geophysics 40 (1998)
59-71. Special Issue: GPR'96, ed. by M. Sato and R. Versteeg.
Published version of the GPR'96
presentation, see [Bruschini96a].
- Brooks98
- J. Brooks, J.D. Nicoud "Applications of GPR Technology to
Humanitarian Demining Operations in Cambodia: Some Lessons Learned",
Third Annual Symposium on Technology and the Mine Problem, Mine Warfare
Association, Monterey, CA, USA, 6-9.4.1998. Proceedings published on
CD-ROM.
(PDF
version
(761 kB),
compressed (gzip) PostScript
Level 2 version (741 kB),
compressed (gzip) PostScript
Level 1 version (1.54 MB), Abstract only).
- Nicoud98a
- J.D. Nicoud, F. Guerne, J. Brooks "Report on the DeTec-2 Testing
in
Cambodia, November 18-21 1998", The Journal of Humanitarian Demining,
Issue 2.2, June 1998. Available online at
http://maic.jmu.edu/journal/2.2/features/nicoud.htm.
1997
- Bruschini97c
- C. Bruschini "Visualizing Metal Detector
for Humanitarian Demining?", a one-page flyer produced for the
LAMI-Mantra Day, EPFL-LAMI, December 5th, 1997
(PDF
version (34 kB) and PDF
with images not downsampled (better quality, 1.19 MB))
A PDF copy in A4 format of the corresponding poster
(355 kB) is also available
(PDF
with images not downsampled (better quality, 2.8 MB)).
- Guerne97a
- F. Guerne, B. Gros, M. Schreiber, J.D. Nicoud "DETEC-1
and DETEC-2: GPR Mine Sensors for Data Acquisition in the Field",
SusDem'97, Zagreb (Croatia), 29 September-1 October 1997, pp.
5.34/5.39.
(PDF
version (297 kB) and PDF
with images not downsampled (better quality, 1.72 MB))
- Guerne97b
- F. Guerne, "Building a Sandbox
with
a Cartesian Gantry for Sensor Testing", SusDem'97, Zagreb
(Croatia),
29 September-1 October 1997, pp. 5.29/5.33.
(PDF
version (351 kB) and PDF
with images not downsampled (better quality, 2.92 MB))
- Nicoud97b
- J.D. Nicoud, "Sensing TNT odors in the middle of a minefield",
SusDem'97, Zagreb (Croatia), 29 September-1 October 1997, pp.
6.38/6.40.
- Bruschini97a
- C. Bruschini, B. Gros, "A Survey of
Current Sensor Technology Research for the Detection of Landmines",
SusDem'97, Zagreb (Croatia), 29 September-1 October 1997, pp.
6.18/6.27.
(PDF
version
(430 kB) and PDF
with images not downsampled (better quality, 2.1 MB)).
- Bruschini97b
- C. Bruschini "Evaluation of a
Commercial Visualizing Metal Detector for UXO/Mine Detection: the HILTI
Ferroscan System
", SusDem'97, Zagreb (Croatia), 29 September-1 October 1997
(presented as poster, not included in the Proceedings).
(PDF
version (348 kB) and PDF
with images not downsampled (better quality, 1.74 MB))
- Nicoud97a
- J.D. Nicoud, "Vehicles and Robots for Humanitarian Demining",
Industrial Robot Journal, Vol 14 (2), 1997, pp. 164-168.
1996
- Bruschini96b
- C. Bruschini "Overview of DeTeC Activities and AP Mine Detection
"State of the Art"", Invited
Presentation (slides) at the Brussels ERM (Ecole Royale Militaire)
Workshop, 5/12/1996 (within the framework of the start of the Belgian
HUDEM
project on humanitarin demining).
- Nicoud96d
- J.D. Nicoud, "GPR and Metal Detector
Portable System", Technology and the Mine Problem Symposium,
Monterey, CA, 18-21.11.1996, pp. 4.63-4.66.
- Nicoud96c
- J.D. Nicoud, "Cooperation in Europe
for Humanitarian Demining", Technology and the Mine Problem
Symposium, Monterey, CA, 18-21.11.1996, pp. 4.57-4.61.
- Bruschini96a
- C. Bruschini, B. Gros, F. Guerne, P.-Y. Pièce, O. Carmona,
"Ground Penetrating Radar and Induction Coil
Sensor Imaging for Antipersonnel Mines Detection", GPR'96, Sendai
(Japan), 30 September-3 October 1996, pp. 211-216.
(PDF version
(304 kB);
PostScript compressed (1.16 MB) as gzip or pkunzip)
Published as "Ground penetrating radar and imaging metal detector for
antipersonnel mine detection" in Journal of Applied Geophysics 40
(1998) 59-71. Special Issue: GPR'96, ed. by M. Sato and R. Versteeg.
- Gros96
- B. Gros, C. Bruschini, "Sensor
Technologies
for the Detection of Antipersonnel mines. A survey of current research
and system developments", ISMCR'96, Bruxelles, May 1996, pp.
564-569.
(PDF version,
PostScript version: plain (655
kB)
or compressed
(168 kB))
- Nicoud96b
- J.D. Nicoud, "Mine Clearance: not only a
problem for the military any more", ISMCR'96, Bruxelles, May 1996,
pp. 6-10.
- Nicoud96a
- J.D. Nicoud, Ph. Maechler, "Robots for Anti-Personnel Mine
Search",
Control Engineering Practice, 4(4), April 1996.
- Perrig96
- A. Perrig, et al., "Finding
Anti-Personnel Mines in a GPR created image", Project of 7th
Semester,
LAMI, EPFL Lausanne, February 8th, 1996.
1995
- Nicoud95k
- J.D. Nicoud, "L'Heritage du 20e siecle", SIA, Ingenieurs
et Architectes suisses, No 23, 25 octobre 1995, pp. 446-453.
- Nicoud95g
- J.D. Nicoud, M.K. Habib, "The Pemex-B Autonomous Demining Robots:
Perception and Navigation Strategies", IROS'95, Pittsburg, August
5-9, 1995, pp. 419-424.
- Nicoud95f
- J.D. Nicoud (ed.) Proceedings of the Workshop on Anti-Personnel
Mine
Detection and Removal, WAPM'95 Lausanne, 30.6-1.7 1995, 74 pages.
- Nicoud95e
- J.D. Nicoud, Ph. Maechler, "Pemex-B a Low Cost Robot for
Searching
Anti-Personnel Mines", Proceedings of WAPM, Lausanne, June 30, July
1st, 1995, pp. 26-29.
- Nicoud95d
- J.D. Nicoud, Ph. Maechler, Robots for Antipersonnel Mine Search,
IAV'95,
Espoo Finland, June 12-14 1995, pp 309-313.
- Nicoud95a
- J.D. Nicoud et Ph. Maechler, Demining Robots, Proceedings of
IAS-4
Conference, Karlsruhe, 27-30 March 95, pp 615-620.
- Maechler95a
- Ph. Maechler, "Detection Technologies
for Anti-Personnel Mines", Symposium on Autonomous Vehicles in
Mine Countermeasures, Monterey, CA, 4-6.4.1995, pp. 6.150-6.154.
(PDF version,
Compressed
(gzip) PostScript version (1.22 MB). Attention: displaying OK, but
there might be printing problems!)
- Nicoud95a
- J.D. Nicoud, "Light weight demining robots", Symposium on
Autonomous Vehicles in Mine Countermeasures, Monterey, CA, 4-6.4.1995,
pp. 8.81-8.85.
http://diwww.epfl.ch/lami/detec/detec.html
| Last modified by CB 20.12.2004.
Current Status of activities: completed (see the
EUDEM2 Web Site).
Go to EPFL
GPR:
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