Landmine locating system
First Claim
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1. A landmine detecting and locating system, comprising:
- a ground-penetrating radar for emitting radio signals into the surface of the ground, and for receiving any returned signals;
a navigation system attached to the ground-penetrating radar and providing for a series of position fixes that indicate ground locations visited by the ground-penetrating radar;
a processor connected to the navigation system for mapping said ground locations visited onto a search grid, and connected to the ground-penetrating radar for evaluating said returned signals as indicating the presence of a buried a landmine; and
a graphic display having a visual representation of said ground locations visited superimposed on a visual representation of said search grid, and providing for navigation guidance of a user to sweep the ground-penetrating radar across locations in said search grid that are not yet visited and evaluated for the presence of landmines.
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Abstract
A landmine detection system comprises a ground-penetrating radar for probing the surface of the ground for landmines and other anomalies. The radar is swept back and forth across a lane while a user proceeds forward. A navigation sensor and processor keep track of all the parts of the lane that have been probed. A user display presents a visual graphic that represents the lane and the parts of it that have been probed. The user is then able to swing the radar to areas that are indicated as having been skipped in previous passes, e.g., to get 100%. coverage.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A landmine detecting and locating system, comprising:
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a ground-penetrating radar for emitting radio signals into the surface of the ground, and for receiving any returned signals;
a navigation system attached to the ground-penetrating radar and providing for a series of position fixes that indicate ground locations visited by the ground-penetrating radar;
a processor connected to the navigation system for mapping said ground locations visited onto a search grid, and connected to the ground-penetrating radar for evaluating said returned signals as indicating the presence of a buried a landmine; and
a graphic display having a visual representation of said ground locations visited superimposed on a visual representation of said search grid, and providing for navigation guidance of a user to sweep the ground-penetrating radar across locations in said search grid that are not yet visited and evaluated for the presence of landmines. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
an accelerometer sensor included in the navigation system that provides for inertial navigation solutions of said series of position fixes that indicate ground locations visited.
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3. The landmine detecting and locating system of claim 2, wherein:
the accelerometer sensor comprises a thermal bubble device that operates by sensing the movements of a heated bubble of gas on a semiconductor chip.
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4. The landmine detecting and locating system of claim 1, further comprising:
a navigation satellite antenna and receiver included in the navigation system that provides for navigation solutions of said series of position fixes that indicate ground locations visited.
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5. A landmine sweeping system, comprising:
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a buried-object probe that electronically illuminates a lane on the ground and that interprets any signals received back for the presence of contrasting materials;
a navigation sensor attached to the buried-object probe and providing for a series of navigation position fixes;
a display processor connected to the buried-object probe and the navigation sensor, and providing for a data item that represents areas on a map that have been visited by the buried-object probe and scanned for buried objects; and
a user display connected to translate said data item, and to visually depict said map and said buried objects on a video screen. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
a rover database for storing many of said data items for later use in compilations that show the results of many sweeps for landmines.
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7. The landmine sweeping system of claim 5, further comprising:
a central database for storing maps and many of said data items for use in compilations that show the results of many sweeps for landmines.
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8. The landmine sweeping system of claim 7, further comprising:
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a rover database for storing many of said data items for later use in compilations that show the results of many sweeps for landmines; and
a wireless communication radio connected to share information in the central database with at least one rover database.
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9. The landmine sweeping system of claim 5, further comprising:
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a coordinate-downloading means from a remote location and providing for an initial search location to the display processor;
wherein, a user is guided to sweep an area determined to need investigation.
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10. A method of landmine detection and logging, the method comprising the steps of:
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manually sweeping a ground area for buried objects with a ground-penetrating radar;
computing a series of navigational positions visited by said ground-penetrating radar;
automatically marking a video map representation for user display to indicate the spots in a larger area that have been swept based on information obtained in the step of computing;
indicating on said video map representation any buried objects detected in the step of manually sweeping; and
showing a user on said video map representation any spots in said larger area that remain unswept and not investigated. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
visiting any locations indicated in the step of showing, and then repeating the steps of manually sweeping, computing, automatically marking, and indicating.
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12. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of computing includes at least one of inertial navigation and satellite navigation receiver position solutions.
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13. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of computing includes combining inertial navigation and satellite navigation receiver position solutions to obtain an uninterrupted series of location fixes of said ground-penetrating radar.
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14. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of:
automatically and electronically sharing a number of results obtained by independent rovers all repeating the steps of manually sweeping, computing, automatically marking, and indicating, in order to build a compilation and annotated map.
Specification