Current Status of activities: no longer updated

NOTE: This page contains some outdated material and is provided for historical reasons only (illustration of early ideas and developments). Superseded by the Thesis: C. Bruschini, "A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Frequency Domain Metal Detectors for Humanitarian Demining", VUB, Brussels, Sept. 2002.

For a short internal paragraph on the current use of Metal Detectors (MDs) in Humanitarian Demining please check MD Use1. An interesting and complete overview of the problem has been published for example in the external MIT report at http://mcnutt.mit.edu/PSTIS/minereport/minereport.html (see the first 2 chapters).

More information can obviously be obtained from institutes and organizations that have dealt with the landmine problem for quite some time, such as those listed in the Mine - QuickRef.

Links that deal in any sort with metal detectors (manufacturers, research, ...) can be searched, looking for "metal" with the "Find" utility of your preferred browser, in the extended list Mine - ExtendedRef. Look in particular for the sections LANDMINES -> COMPANIES, and METAL DETECTORS (towards the end).

Short "Profiles" of European companies producing metal detectors, initially intended for internal use, have been collected here.

MD Use1

MD Use2 (ext.)

Links (ExtendedRef)

Short European Company Profiles

A concise description of how pulse induction detectors work (for rebar location, but the basics does not change) is available at http://www.protovale.co.uk/.

Initial ideas on a Visualizing MD, inspired by the DASA-Dornier ODIS system, are described under "Project ISMED". Other ideas on a combined portable radar (GPR) and MD system, together with comparative GPR and MD "images", can be found in this Monterey1996 article. A couple of plots and general information on the Förster Minex MD have been presented at GPR96.

Pulse Induction

Visual. MD Ideas1

GPR+MD ideas

Visual. MD Ideas2, Plots

A short survey of some more advanced ideas has been presented at SusDem'97 (features also a couple of interesting images showing the metallic content of a PMN and PMN2 mine). Tests with a commercial Visualizing MD (HILTI Ferroscan) for rebar location have been carried out and have also been presented at SusDem'97. A one page summary has also been produced, which contains hints to current/possible research directions.

Data has been collected with a Förster Minex MD and analyzed. We will try to make available what we can when we can...

Survey (Advanced Ideas)

Visual. MD Tests

Visual.MD Summary+Ideas