Information relating to this project is classified as commercially sensitive and in accordance has been restricted in detail.

The objective of the LOTUS project is to develop, integrate and demonstrate a proof of concept of a multi sensor APL detection system integrated on a robotic remote controlled vehicle. The remote control will radically improve safety of demining operations while vehicle based multi sensor detection combined with powerful data fusion will lead to more productive humanitarian mine detection operations.

The sensors are Multi-Spectral and Multi-Dimensional: Ground Penetrating Radar, Infra Red, Metal detector, and have been studied in the on-going GEODE project. They will be further improved and adapted to a remote controlled vehicle as well as the data fusion and the computer architecture, to handle efficient real time operations.

After taking over the technical lead from Thomson-Detexis it became manned. This was the most recent mine detection project which led to the successful Bosnian Mine Detection trial in Vidovice in Aug 2002. The MINEREC GPR array was used with a metal detector array from Foerster GmBh, and an Infra-red camera from TNO-FEL in an integrated real time sensor suite. The data from all three sensors was analysed in real time, fused and used to drive a ground marking system. In the trial in Bosnia, organised by Demira, a German NGO, the vehicle drove along the test lanes and all the mines were marked as the vehicle passed by. By combining the output from different sensors the false alarm rate, the major waste of demining resources, was dramatically reduced.

High Performance Computing and Networking, Real Time Mine Recognition, Real Time GPR Data Analysis

For the MINEREC project, an extensive GPR array specifically for the detection of minimum metal, or "plastic" anti-personnel mines was designed, built and tested. The insidious nature of these small objects (50mm) and the large areas that need to be searched demand a highly productive but reliable detection system.

The MINEREC GPR was conceived as one of an array of four modules that would allow a vehicle to search a swathe 3m wide at a few km/hr. The design significantly raised the performance of GPR systems. The array used antenna elements of a unique design that had un precedented wide band performance. The antenna array consisted of sixteen such elements each with a transmit and receive capability, allowing sixty four channels of detailed radar data to be collected.

The objective of the GEODE project (Ground Explosive Ordnance DEtection system) is to demonstrate advanced architecture and fusion software for multi-sensor detection, localisation and classification of Anti-Personnel Landmines (APL); by combining complementary sensors and using innovative processing techniques, GEODE will demonstrate a higher detection probability than currently achieved by existing systems, a lower false alarm rate and a capability to classify the various detected objects.

It is widely admitted that more than 100 million mines have been laid all over the world and that, at the current rate of manual demining operations, it would take hundreds of years to clear the earth; therefore, the requirement for an efficient way to detect, localise and classify mines which will speed up demining while making it safer is obvious. However, the severe operational conditions (variety of terrains, vegetation, APL nature and mining patterns, environment) and the requirement to maintain a high level of performance independently from the observation conditions leads necessarily to a high performance system.

This project was carried out under contract to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The combination of the dimensions of the turbines, and the Doppler Shift generated by their high blade tip dimensions potentially generates unusual sources of electomagnetic interfernce to sensitive aeronautical radio services.

It involved the modelling of the interaction of radio signals with wind turbines. Subsequently, the modelling was validated by measurements upon an antenna range. With validated predictions of the possible effects of wind turbines the guidelines were formulated, and have been issued by the CAA as their recommendation.

Pipehawk forms part of the consortium working on the development of an Integrated High Resolution Imaging Ground Penetrating Radar & Decision Support System, for the rehabilitation of water pipes.

The project is co-funded by the European Commission and runs from November 2006 - October 2009.

Further details can be found at www.waterpipe-eu.org/