Landmine detection technology research in the Netherlands

This paper gives an overview of the activities on research and development in the technology area for landmine detection in the Netherlands. The main players, their projects and the long term and short term project goals are presented. The projects cover the range from military applications to humanitarian demining. In the "conventional" detection systems area the activities on Metal detection, Ground Penetrating Radar and Thermal Infrared are covered. Signal processing and Sensor fusion are key activities in this area and examples of these activities are shown as well. The focus for these techniques is on vehicle mounted and airborne multi-sensor systems. The activities are supported by more fundamental modelling of the interaction of sensors with the landmines and especially the effects of the environment of the mines on this interaction. In the area of more future oriented techniques the following techniques are discussed: forward looking Polarised Infrared for moving platforms, Neutron Backscattering techniques and Laser Vibrometry for acoustic detection.