12.5 Hand-Held Mine Detection

A possible specification for hand-held mine detectors for humanitarian use might be as follows:

It is more than likely that a GPR system will be combined with a metal detector. There will be certain requirements on a metal detector and these should also be considered during system design. The most advanced systems in terms of technology readiness level (TRL) are the US Army HSTAMIDS hand-held detector under development by Cyterra (US) and the MINETECT humanitarian detector under development by ERA Technology (UK). The HSTAMIDS is in limited production and is at the highest TRL, while the MINETECT system is working through a field trials programme. The HSTAMIDS system combines a metal detector system manufactured by Minelab of Australia with a three antenna stepped frequency GPR system developed under US Army funding by Cyterra. The MINETECT system combines a metal detector system manufactured by Vallon of Germany with a two antenna impulse radar GPR system developed for the Department of International Development (UK) by ERA Technology. This system is described later in this Chapter. Many other national programmes have attempted the development of a hand-held mine...