Mine action: status of sensor technology for close-in and remote detection of antipersonnel mines

After a broad introductory discussion on the mine action problem, this paper presents the status of close-in mine detection technologies, including operational characteristics without aiming at being exhaustive. Signal processing aspects and important lessons on data fusion are also discussed briefly. The detection is considered as a global process in which the outputs of the sensors, considered as skilled specialists, are integrated in a fusion operation. Next, the paper briefly addresses the problem of area reduction using remote sensing. In this case, information, collected with appropriate sensors and associated with context information from the field, is integrated in a geographical information system. This part of the paper is intentionally limited to a very short description of the SMART project funded by the European Commission, which uses multispectral and full polarimetric radar data in order to assist image analysts in their interpretation of mined scenes during an area reduction process.