0051 - GROUND VEHICLE DETECTION METRICS AND TERRAMECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION DERIVED FROM A DISTRIBUTED ACOUSTIC SENSING SYSTEM DEPLOYED ON AN ARCTIC ICE ROAD

Paper presented at ISTVS 2025 | 55th Conference of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems https://doi.org/10.56884/ISF3IT7O

Authors: Aaron Meyer, Adrian Doran, Abhishek Bhagat, Meghan Quinn, Keith Wilson, Matthew Kimball, Jennifer Picucci, Wei Huang, Russ Alger

Keywords: Detection & tracking; Terramechanics; Distributed fiber-optic sensing; Distributed acoustic sensing

Abstract:

We present results from vehicle testing conducted on an Arctic ice road in February 2025 and monitored with a fiber optic distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) system. The DAS sensing element, a 1-km telecommunications-grade fiber-optic cable, was deployed in three configurations: surface-laid on snow, surface-laid on ice, and frozen into ice. We utilized an amplitude-only DAS system that recorded strain-rate time series with a channel spacing of 5 m. Detection metrics as a function of deployment configuration were derived against multiple vehicles transiting at variable speeds. Detection statistics are shown to vary with deployment conditions and target characteristics, suggesting that sensor performance can be optimized by accounting for environment and source type. Additionally, we used the fiber-optic sensor and vehicle excitations to interrogate the propagation medium. We present evidence that observed differences in frequency-dependent transmission loss can discriminate DAS cables embedded in ice and snow. This work resulted from an international collaboration enabled by the International Cooperative Engagement Program for Polar Research (ICE-PPR).