|
OCTOBER 19, 1259 EDT
SAN DIEGO -- U.S. Army researchers are trying to find sensors that detect buried land mines without an undue number of false alarms. They found their solution from the Quantum Magnetics Inc. subsidiary of InVision Technologies Inc. in San Diego.
Quantum Magnetics won U.S. Army contract for $729,000 to develop an innovative magnetic gradiometer to be used to detect landmines and unexploded ordnance, company officials announced Oct. 19.
The contract follows an Army research project to develop technology to detect mines and unexploded ordnance with significantly reduced false alarms rates than is possible today.
This system would complement the quadrupole resonance-based system that Quantum is developing to detect landmines under previously announced contracts with the U.S. Army and Office of Naval Research, company officials say.
Quantum's proposed magnetic gradiometer detector is to be one sensor that blends passive magnetometry and active electromagnetic detection capabilities.
"Current technologies for mine and ordnance detection are slow and unreliable, largely because they are unable to adequately discriminate between hazardous objects and non-hazardous metal clutter," says Lowell Burnett, president and chief executive officer of Quantum Magnetics.
"When this project is completed, Quantum's magnetic gradiometer should be able to detect unexploded ordnance and landmines in varied real-life conditions more accurately, and more quickly, than present-day systems," Burnett says.
"The magnetic gradiometer system would complement our quadrupole resonance technology which detects the explosive charge inside landmines and unexploded ordnance," added Burnett. As previously announced, Quantum's quadrupole resonance technology can detect the vast majority of all landmines deployed worldwide. During field trials in 1999, one of Quantum's quadrupole resonance systems detected 100% of antipersonnel and antitank landmines with no false alarms.
InVision develops explosives-detection systems based on advanced computed tomography for civil aviation security. Quantum develops and commercializes patented and proprietary technologies such as quadrupole resonance licensed from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.
For more information contact Quantum Magnetics by phone at 858-566-9200, 858-566-9388, by e-mail at info@qm.com, by post at 7740 Kenamar Court, San Diego, Calif. 92121, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.qm.com.
Military & Aerospace Electronics
| 
Community 
| View all PennWell sites | View all PennWell events | OptoIQ
Add RSS Feed