Patrick Verlindea, Marc Acheroya, Giuseppe Nestib and Alois Sieberb aRoyal Military Academy/Signal and Image Centre, Brussels, Belgium bJRC/Technologies for Detection and Positioning, Ispra, Italy

Abstract well-registered) multi- data. This kind of data is in- deed needed in order to develop, experiment, and validate The Joint Multi-sensor Mine-signatures (MsMs) project sensor or data fusion (to be more general) algorithms. In was started in the year 2000 and has as its main goal to or- order to cope with this lack of multi-sensor data, the Joint ganize and execute an experimental campaign for collect- Research Centre (JRC) of the European Union has decided ing data of buried land-mines with multiple . These to sponsor a Joint Multi-sensor Mine-signatures measure- data sets are being made widely available to researchers ment campaign (called the MsMs project). Detailed infor- and developers working amongst else on , mation about this project and its results are available via and signal processing for improved detection and identi- the web site: http://demining.jrc.it/msms. In the next sec- fication of land-mines. The outdoor test facility (6 x 80 m) tion, the most relevant characteristics with respect to this of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Com- paper are presented. mission, located at Ispra (Italy), houses the test minefield. Six test strips of 6 x 6 m consisting of different soil types 2. THE TEST SET-UP (cluttered grassy terrain, loamy soil, sandy soil, clay soil, soil with high content of organic matter, and ferromagnetic In order to realize the ambition of performing an ex- soil) are complemented with one reference test strip of 6 x perimental campaign, in which the data from all sensors is 6 m consisting of pure sand. The list of objects buried in the well documented and correctly registered, a common test minefield includes mine simulants of three different dimen- protocol has been developed. In this test protocol impor- sions with either a low or a high metal content, reference tant issues such as the definition of coordinate reference targets for position referencing and calibration checking, systems, the positioning of the scanning frame, the data and clutter objects including empty bullet cartridges, metal acquisition, the definition and the acquisition of the me- cans, barbed wire, stones, wood, plastic boxes, etc . This teorological parameters, the definition and the acquisition test minefield is going to be left intact for a long period, in of other environmental parameters, and the specifications order to be able to perform multiple runs on it. For the of data formats are determined. The complete test proto- test campaign of the year 2000, the core sensors were a col is available via the web site of the project. The outdoor metal detector, a ground penetrating , a microwave test facility of the Joint Research Facility of the European radiometer, and several thermal imagers. The first Commission, located at Ispra (Italy), is housing the test data sets are in the process of being released right now. minefield. The test lane is formed by a strip of ground sep- This paper aims to prepare the first results to be obtained arated from the surrounding terrain by two concrete walls by fusing the data coming from these different sensors, by of about 50 cm in width and 70 cm in depth. The use of presenting the available datasets. steel reinforcement in the walls was avoided to minimize a potential interference with the measurements. The test Keywords: Humanitarian de-mining, multi-sensor data lane is about 80 m long and 5.7 m wide. A portion of this fusion, MsMs project database. test lane (about 55 m long) has been used to realize seven scenarios, also called (test) plots, for the MsMs project. 1. INTRODUCTION Six test plots of6x6mconsisting of different soil types (cluttered grassy terrain, loamy soil, sandy soil, clay soil, In the field of humanitarian demining more and more soil with high content of organic matter, and ferromagnetic people feel that fundamental advances can be made by soil) are complemented with one reference test plot of 6 x using a combination of mine detection sensors, as opposed 6 m consisting of pure industrial sand. All soil types are to a single sensor1–5. In this multi-sensor approach, an im- bare, except the first one. The growth of any vegetation is portant part of the research deals with the question of how prevented by regularly spraying the surface with an anti- to combine the (information coming from the) different vegetative product. The different plots are numbered from sensors in an optimal way. A major problem however along 1 to 7, and each plot is further subdivided in three subplots, this main research axis is the lack of (well-documented and labelled A, B, and C. In each soil type, we have buried the same 48 test objects (including targets, reference ob- jects, calibration objects and clutter objects) according to one and the same pattern. The positioning of the different test objects in each soil type is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2. Photo of the reference objects. On the left the Po- sitioning Reference Target (PT). In the middle the metallic Figure 1. Layout of the different test objects in each soil sphere (RE1) used as reference object for the GPR and the type. Microwave Radiometer. On the right the cylinder of sili- cone rubber (RE2) used as a reference object for the IR The list of objects buried in the minefield includes mine sensors, including a small metal sphere used as reference simulants of three different dimensions (small, medium objects for the Metal Detectors. and large) and of two different metal contents (low and high), reference targets for position referencing and cali- bration checking, and clutter objects. Three types of reference objects have been used: posi- tion reference objects, reference objects for radar and mi- crowave radiometers, and reference objects for thermal in- frared sensors and metal detectors. The purpose of the po- sition reference objects is to be easily detectable by all sen- sors, and it is used to help in the alignment and the com- mon referencing of the measured data. The purpose of the two other types of reference objects is to be objects which have geometrical and physical characteristics fully speci- fied, stable, and easily reproducible. The two types differ according to the type of sensor they are used for. The three types of reference objects are shown in Figure 2, the mine simulants in Figure 3, and the clutter objects in Figure 4. 3. CORE SENSORS IN 2000 The list of core sensors which have been collecting data in the year 2000 includes: pulsed metal detector (MD), µwave radiometer (MR), pulsed ground penetrating radar Figure 3. Photo of the mine simulants. The suffix A or (GPR), thermal infra-red (TIR) camera, and Quantum Well B corresponds to low or high metal content, respectively. Intersubband (QWIP). The external appearance of the simulants M1 and M2 is 4. AVAILABLE DATASETS FOR FUSION identical for the A and B types. The simulants M3A and M3B differ also with respect to the shape of the case. The datasets from the measurement campaign in 2000 and available for fusion are listed in Table 1. 5. DATASETS SCHEDULED IN 2001 The scheduled to collect data during the year 2001 includes: continuous wave metal detector, µwave radiometer, pulsed ground penetrating radar, backscattering X-Ray detector, acoustic laser doppler vibrometer, thermal infra-red camera, and Quantum Well Intersubband Photodetector. 6. CONCLUSIONS The MsMs project provides the research community with a unique opportunity of obtaining well documented and well registered datasets of multiple and calibrated mine detection sensors. The first data sets allowing for the first data fusion experiments are being made available now. This process will continue via the web site of the project: http://demining.jrc.it/msms. Figure 4. Photo of the different types of clutter objects. 7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CL1: stone, CL2: Section of barbed wire, CL3: Aluminum can, CL4: Plastic box, CL5: Wooden cylinder, CL6: Bullet This project is sponsored by the Joint Research Cen- cartridge. tre of The European Union European. The authors wish to thank the different partners which have contributed un- til now to this project, namely: DERA (UK), DLR (GE), Table 1. List of available (YES) datasets acquired during FGAN (GE), JRC (EU), ONERA (FR), RMA (BE), and the Multi-sensor Mine-signatures (MsMs) Campaign in the TNO (NL). year 2000. REFERENCES 1. E. den Breejen, K. Schutte, and F. Cremer. Sensor Fu- Subplot GPR MD MR TIR QWIP sion for Anti-Personnel Landmine Detection, a Case 1A YES YES YES YES YES Study. In SPIE, editor, Conference on Detection Tech- 1B NO YES NO YES YES nologies for Mines and Minelike Targets, volume 3710, 1C YES YES NO YES YES pages 1235–1245, Orlando, USA, 1999. 2A YES YES NO YES YES 2. P. Gao, S. Tantum, and L. Collins. 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