Preparing the Joint Multi-sensor Mine-signatures project database for data fusion

The Joint Multi-sensor Mine-signatures (MsMs) project was started in the year 2000 and has as its main goal to organize and execute an experimental campaign for collecting data of buried land-mines with multiple sensors. These data sets are being made widely available to researchers and developers working amongst else on sensor fusion, and signal processing for improved detection and identification of land-mines. The outdoor test facility (6 × 80 m) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, located at Ispra (Italy), houses the test minefield. Six test strips of 6 × 6 m consisting of different soil types (cluttered grassy terrain, loamy soil, sandy soil, clay soil, soil with high content of organic matter, and ferromagnetic soil) are complemented with one reference test strip of 6 × 6 m consisting of pure sand. The list of objects buried in the minefield includes mine simulants of three different dimensions with either a low or a high metal content, reference targets for position referencing and calibration checking, and clutter objects including empty bullet cartridges, metal cans, barbed wire, stones, wood, plastic boxes, etc .... This test minefield is going to be left intact for a long period, in order to be able to perform multiple runs on it. For the test campaign of the year 2000, the core sensors were a metal detector, a ground penetrating radar, a microwave radiometer, and several thermal infrared imagers. The first data sets are in the process of being released right now. This paper aims to prepare the first results to be obtained by fusing the data coming from these different sensors, by presenting the available datasets.