Metal Detectors in Civil Engineering and Humanitarian Demining : Overview and Tests of a Commercial Visualizing System

After a brief introduction to Humanitarian Demining we will review the basic principles of the electromagnetic detection of metallic objects, especially induction devices (“metal detectors”), and see how they are applied in Humanitarian Demining and Civil Engineering, with emphasis on visualization techniques. We will then report on tests of a commercial “imaging metal detector” aimed at trying to assess its potentialities and understand in a broader sense if such systems, possibly in a modified form, could be useful to tackle some aspects of the Humanitarian Demining problem. The latter include the detection of non minimum-metal mines and shallowly buried Unexploded Ordnance (UXO).