Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for Root Analysis

The focus of this project is to develop an unconventional GPR system designed with greater accuracy, penetration depth and imaging capabilities that will extend the GPR technology for more accurate root analysis. To extend the GPR technology, we designed an unconventional GPR system that provides root information in the area under observation with greater accuracy and penetration depth by using a novel variable frequency GPR design. The system consists of a field-deployable; GPR platform and an advanced 3D reconstruction and processing suite. The platform consists of multi-frequency radar mounted on a precision controlled scanning platform. The scanning platform allows for increased signal-to-noise, unmatched visualization support capabilities (through 3D tomography using multiple angles and polarities) and repeatable measurements. The features and capabilities of the system include:

• Innovative direct-path interference mitigation and soil property estimation
• Novel first break mitigation
• Real-time visualization to quickly inform the operator about the conditions of the soil
• State-of-the-art tomographic reconstruction and post-processing to provide the user with detailed 3D image reconstructions, root distribution information and statistical analysis