What are the challenges?
Explosive hazards (EH), such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), are a concern for Canada’s military and allies. IEDs in particular are cheap, easily made, and readily deployed by adversarial groups and bad actors. Over the previous decades, these threats have changed the way military forces operate to ensure freedom of movement while maintaining safety. Despite the development of detection techniques and countermeasures, EH remains an enduring threat to military personnel and civilians in various theatres, ranging from rural to urban environments. Therefore, the Department of National Defence (DND) has posed an Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) challenge to develop novel solutions for stand-off detection of concealed explosives.
What is C-CORE doing?
C-CORE has built a concealed explosive detector called the Micro-Doppler Signature Indicating eXplosives (MiDSIX) system. The novel approach combines acoustic and radar components to induce and detect vibrations from concealed explosives. Loudspeaker settings are optimized to scan for the resonant vibration frequencies of individual threats, radar parameters are tuned for through-the-wall measurements of threat vibrations, and advanced signal processing techniques are applied to detect and characterize threat parameters. The MiDSIX system is easy to deploy and operate, and the results are displayed in near real-time, providing operators and key personnel with the critical data required for informed decision making.
