Munitions related feature extraction from LIDAR data.

Conference · Tue Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI ID:1020380

Roberts, Barry L

The characterization of former military munitions ranges is critical in the identification of areas likely to contain residual unexploded ordnance (UXO). Although these ranges are large, often covering tens-of-thousands of acres, the actual target areas represent only a small fraction of the sites. The challenge is that many of these sites do not have records indicating locations of former target areas. The identification of target areas is critical in the characterization and remediation of these sites. The Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) of the DoD have been developing and implementing techniques for the efficient characterization of large munitions ranges. As part of this process, high-resolution LIDAR terrain data sets have been collected over several former ranges. These data sets have been shown to contain information relating to former munitions usage at these ranges, specifically terrain cratering due to high-explosives detonations. The location and relative intensity of crater features can provide information critical in reconstructing the usage history of a range, and indicate areas most likely to contain UXO. We have developed an automated procedure using an adaptation of the Circular Hough Transform for the identification of crater features in LIDAR terrain data. The Circular Hough Transform is highly adept at finding circular features (craters) in noisy terrain data sets. This technique has the ability to find features of a specific radius providing a means of filtering features based on expected scale and providing additional spatial characterization of the identified feature. This method of automated crater identification has been applied to several former munitions ranges with positive results.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1020380
• Report Number(s): SAND2010-3975C
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
CHEMICAL EXPLOSIVES
EXPLOSIONS
MILITARY EQUIPMENT
OPTICAL RADAR
SECURITY
TARGETS