Polarization lidar measurements of honeybees for locating buried landmines

A polarization-sensitive lidar was used to detect honeybees trained to locate buried landmines by smell. Lidar measurements of bee location agree reasonably well with maps of chemical plume strength and bee density determined by visual and video counts, indicating that the bees are preferentially located near the explosives and that the lidar identifies the locations of higher bee concentration. The co-polarized lidar backscatter signal is more effective than the cross-polarized signal for bee detection. Laboratory measurements show that the depolarization ratio of scattered light is near zero for bee wings and up to approximately thirty percent for bee bodies.