A comparison of bistatic and multistatic handheld ground penetrating radar (GPR) antenna performance for landmine detection

This paper reports the results of a study comparing the performance of bi-static and multi-static antennas systems for handheld ground penetrating radar (GPR), applied to humanitarian anti-personnel (AP) landmine detection. The investigation is focused on mine detection using handheld multi-sensor systems that combine metal detection and GPR. Single A-scan, 1 dimensional data from 3D time domain models of each system are considered. The modelling and simulations were performed using the Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave Studio (MWS). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to identify the features of the landmine that most strongly effect the measured GPR data. A comparison of the principal components and Eigen-values quantifies the advantage gained from using multi-static over bi-statics systems for landmine detection.