Remote Sensing of Neutron and Gamma Radiation using Aerial Unmanned Autonomous System

Authors

Alex Barzilov, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Jessica Hartman, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Ivan Novikov, Western Kentucky University

Meeting name

Graduate & Professional Student Research Forum

Funder

Graduate & Professional Student Association

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

2016

Abstract

With the continuing advancement of nuclear technologies, the detection and identification of radioactive material is a necessary part of commercial and government applications. There is a wide array of options available for detection and identification of material, but most rely on compact devices which are manually positioned. The deployment of robots equipped with detection equipment is not always feasible, especially in locations where there is considerable debris on the ground, or where there are low clearance areas. To solve this, the goal of this research was to design a remote sensing system for radiation using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A swarm of small-scale quadcopters with detection and navigation capabilities were employed to carry out dynamically tracked radiation measurements. Detection was carried out though the use of a Cs2LiYCl6:Ce3+ scintillation detector equipped with pulse shape discrimination (PSD). This allowed for differentiation between neutron and photon radiation signatures based on the shape of the signal. The maximum likelihood estimation technique was employed to search remotely for radiation sources using the data obtained by multiple UAVs.

Disciplines

Mechanical Engineering | Nuclear Engineering

Comments

Presentation given at the IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium & Medical Imaging Conference (November 2015).

Repository Citation

Barzilov, A., Hartman, J., Novikov, I. (2016). Remote Sensing of Neutron and Gamma Radiation using Aerial Unmanned Autonomous System.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/gpsa_forum/1