Method and apparatus for identifying buried objects using ground penetrating radar

• US 7,034,740 B2
• Filed: 02/02/2004
• Issued: 04/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Underground Imaging Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: Witten Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Witten, Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Gregory, Bernarr E.
• Application Number:
  US10/769,965
• Publication Number:
  US 20040155810A1
• Time in Patent Office: 813 Days
• Field of Search: 702/12, 342/21, 342/22, 342/25, 342/27, 342/28, 342/59, 342/89, 342/90, 342/118, 342127-132, 342134-145, 342/175, 342192-197
• US Class Current: 342/22
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/0209 Systems with very large relative bandwidth, i.e. larger than 10 %, e.g. baseband, pulse, carrier-free, ultrawideband
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/88 Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications electromagnetic prospecting or detecting of objects, e.g. near-field detection, G01V3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/885 for ground probing prospecting or detecting using electromagnetic waves G01V3/12
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/28 Details of pulse systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/12 operating with electromagnetic waves operating with millimetre waves G01V8/005
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/17 operating with electromagnetic waves operating with millimetre waves G01V8/005
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/08 the units being spaced along or adjacent to a rectilinear path waveguide fed H01Q21/0037
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/24 varying the orientation by switching energy from one active radiating element to another, e.g. for beam switching
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/2682 Time delay steered arrays

Abstract

An apparatus for identifying a buried object using ground penetrating radar (GPR) in a system containing at least one GPR sensor, comprises a data processor for detecting spatial correlations in data received from a GPR sensor in the apparatus and an image processor capable of building a data structure corresponding to an image of the buried object from data processed by the data processor. A method for identifying a buried object using GPR in a system containing a GPR sensor comprising detecting spatial correlations in data received from the GPR sensor in the system and building a data structure corresponding to an image of the buried object from the received data.

Claims

1. An apparatus for identifying a buried object using ground penetrating radar (GPR) containing at least one GPR sensor, comprising:

an image processor for building a data structure corresponding to an image of a subsurface region containing the buried object from data collected from the at least one GPR sensor;

a feature processor for processing the data structure to extract at least one identifiable feature of the buried object from the data; and

a discriminator for identifying the buried object from the at least one identifiable feature.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a display for presenting a representation of the identified buried object.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the representation of the identified buried object presented by the display comprises a three-dimensional rendering of a surveyed site containing the buried object.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the representation of the identified buried object presented by the display comprises a sequence of two-dimensional images of a reconstruction of a surveyed site containing the buried object.

5. An apparatus for identifying a buried object using ground penetrating radar (GPR) in a system containing at least one GPR sensor, comprising:

a data processor for processing data collected from the at least one GPR sensor to extract at least one identifiable feature of the buried object from the data; and

a detector for identifying the buried object from the at least one identifiable feature, wherein the detector comprises a depth indicator for directing the detector to a specified depth range.

6. An apparatus for identifying a buried object using ground penetrating radar (GPR) in a system containing at least one GPR sensor, comprising:

a data processor for processing data collected from the at least one GPR sensor to extract at least one identifiable feature of the buried object from the data; and

a detector for identifying the buried object from the at least one identifiable feature, wherein the detector comprises a refractive index indicator for directing the detector to an object within a specified refractive index range.

7. A subsurface object locating system, comprising:

at least one ground penetrating radar (GPR) sensor,

a data processor, responsive to signals from the at least one GPR sensor, for generating data signals representative of a subsurface region scanned via the at least one GPR sensor;

an image processor for building a three-dimensional data structure corresponding to an image of the subsurface region from data signals generated by the data processor;

a feature processor for processing the three-dimensional data structure to extract an identifiable feature of an object buried the subsurface region; and

a display for presenting a representation of the identified buried object, based on the extracted identifiable feature of the buried object.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the representation of the identified buried object presented by the display comprises a three-dimensional rendering of a surveyed site containing the buried object.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the representation of the identified buried object presented by the display comprises a sequence of two-dimensional images of a reconstruction of a surveyed site containing the buried object.

10. A program product comprising instructions embodied in a computer readable medium, wherein the instructions are for causing one or more programmable computers to perform steps, comprising:

processing signals from at least one GPR sensor to generate data signals representative of a subsurface region scanned by the at least one GPR sensor;

building a three-dimensional data structure corresponding to an image of the subsurface region from the data signals representative of the subsurface region;

processing the three-dimensional data structure to extract an identifiable feature of an object buried in the scanned subsurface region; and

generating a three-dimensional representation of the buried object in the scanned subsurface region for display to a user, based on the extracted identifiable feature of the buried object.