Mine and UXO detection: measures of performance and their implication in real-world scenarios

Mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) detection systems must function in highly cluttered environments. Clutter leads to false alarms thereby hindering the detection and identification of targets of interest. Since the end user of the mine or UXO detection technology requires both a high detection rate and a low number of false alarms, technology demonstrations and system evaluations are designed to test these measures of performance. Detection rate and false- alarm rate are highly interdependent and must always be evaluated together. The relationship between the two rates directly affects the overall performance of the sensor in the field. Poor performance of a system in either detection rate or false-alarm rate causes a substantial increase in risk of undetected and thus unmarked or unremediated mines or UXO. A system with a low detection rate will leave many mines or UXO undetected. Performance can be traded between probability of detection and false-alarm rate by changing the system threshold. Raising or lowering the threshold will cause both the detections and false alarms to decrease or increase together. A system with a high false-alarm rate result in an increase in the time required to investigate potential targets. Therefore the rate of advance and rate of clearance decrease. With limited clearance resources, site coverage may become too time consuming or costly for operationally effective clearance, resulting in risk from undetected mines and UXO in areas that have not been searched. An assessment of the connection between detection rate nd false-alarm is presented. This relationship is discussed in the context of several government-sponsored in- field technology demonstrations of prototype and commercially available mine and UXO detection technologies, as well as real clearance operations. Implications of the results of these tests and the measures of performance are discussed in the context of real-world operations, including scenarios for clearance of miens in Bosnia and of UXO at DoD sites.