Methods of mine detection for humanitarian demining: survey

Abstract

The international community is increasingly aware of the scale and severity of the problems posed by landmines and explosive remnants of war, including unexploded ordnance, and agrees that it is a global problem that requires a concerted response. At the same time, there are still no mine detection methods that would ensure 100% efficiency and meet all the criteria applied to humanitarian demining. The existing methods differ significantly in terms of such parameters as operator safety, productivity, economic efficiency, and versatility. Much attention has recently been paid to remote mine detection methods using UAVs. Their progress is due to the rapid development of UAVs themselves, portable sensors, as well as data analysis methods. Despite the significant progress in research in recent years, remote methods have not yet been put into operation and most of them are at the stage of research at test sites. The situation is a little better with ground robotic platforms. The results of the work of different groups of researchers have not been unified, and no unified approaches to the verification of methods have been developed. The presence of research directions that are different in principle and physical nature of signals does not always allow their participants to be aware of the latest achievements in related fields, because tracking the development of all directions of research is quite a difficult task. At the same time, only the combination of several methods with different physical principles makes possible the emergence of a truly reliable and universal method. But in order to prove the concept of combining methods with different physical principles from an idea to a practical implementation, researchers need a thorough understanding of each of the methods to be combined. Methods that were not previously considered promising can receive a new impetus for development thanks to the appearance of improved sensors. Therefore, reviews are needed that will reveal the available methods in their diversity, will provide a basic understanding of the physical principles underlying them, and at the same time will not be overloaded with unnecessary details. This is the goal of this article.