Testing A Safe Acquisition Procedure for An Effective Application of GPR To Security Operations

Terrorism is posing new technological problems to security forces. The need of checking for<br>hazardous targets such as explosives, bombs, weapons, etc., hidden inside unexpected packages or<br>embedded within blocks of other materials is increasing. GPR has been already explored for Anti-<br>Personnel Mines (APM) detection and most prototypes are based on single or arrays of antennas<br>surveying the suspected area from a distance of a few centimeters. We are exploring a flexible solution<br>that is expected to be: a) applicable to different scenarios such as soil inspections (as for landmines) but<br>also investigations on packages, blocks of materials, walls, etc., b) adaptable to a set of antennas to<br>ensure proper penetration and resolution, c) safe for operator and equipment, d) accurate in antenna<br>positioning to produce 3D reconstructions, e) based on a survey procedure that allows the contact with<br>the medium to eliminate the energy loss produced by the non-contact approach. A single antenna plus an<br>armored PSG (Pad System for Georadar) seem to fulfill the requirements. Radar performances were<br>tested to explore the effects of the armor material. Tests were executed on the landmine field managed<br>by the Joint Research Center (JRC) in Ispra (Italy). The results demonstrate the feasibility and the<br>advantages of this solution.