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This got my curiosity peaked. I was able to dig up an open source GPR rig that even utilizes building a rover to do scanning.

https://hackaday.io/project/4440-open-ground-penetrating-rad...

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Fun fact: magnetic resonance (a la hospital MRI machines) is also a common method of underground imaging. MRI is quite neat in that the time-space resolution tradeoff is extremely flexible, and you can get quite good pictures if you leave a cheap imager long enough. Instead of using massive superconducting magnets they just use the Earth's field. It's especially good for imaging underground water, as well as other hydrogen-containing materials like hydrates or hydroxides.

I think there may be a DIY version on hackaday, but I know for a fact theres a project where someone took a DIY MRI of an apple. The hardware for a low-field MRI actually has a fair amount in common with GPR- the hydrogen atoms emit lowish frequency radio waves when they realign with the magnetic field.

https://hackaday.io/project/5030-low-field-mri

Just took a tour on http://hackaday.io, it's refreshing to browse through what feels like genuine innovation.

Definitely check out the hackaday prize finalists; everything in the top ten every year is usually spectacular. Example: https://hackaday.io/project/5030-low-field-mri

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