HDL Laboratory

The Humanitarian Demining Laboratory (HDL) is part of the Smart Structures and Materials Laboratory of "La Sapienza" University, located in Cisterna di Latina, near Rome, Italy. The main aim of the Lab is to develop new anti-personnel mine detection devices, for humanitarian demining. Experimental activity is being carried out on a promising original active thermal technology based on localized heating and sensing. At the same time, simulations, feasibility studies, and experiments are starting on vibrometric/acoustic and GPR techniques, with the aim of developing a multi-sensor platform employing data fusion and collaborating robotic agents. An experimental facility has been realized in the lab for this purpose. A computer-controlled cart can move over a 2.6m^3 sand box, holding a heater and instrumentation. In the sand box, two accurate TS-50 low-metal-content mine surrogates are hidden, together with other objects, of different materials. An outdoor "minefield" has also been recently realized

HDL is funded by Cisterna di Latina Local Council and Tecnologie Solidali Onlus