TerrorismSuicide bomb detector moves close to commercialization with Sandia engineer’s help
On the chilling list of terrorist tactics, suicide bombing is at the top. Between 1981 and 2015, an estimated 5,000 such attacks occurred in more than 40 countries, killing about 50,000 people. The global rate grew from three a year in the 1980s to one a month in the 1990s to one a week from 2001 to 2003 to one a day from 2003 to 2015. R3 Technologies and a group of other small businesses are developing a way to prevent suicide attacks by detecting concealed bombs before they go off. R3 found a partner in Sandia sensor expert JR Russell who has helped bring the company’s Concealed Bomb Detector, or CBD-1000, close to commercialization over the past two years.
On the chilling list of terrorist tactics, suicide bombing is at the top. Between 1981 and 2015, an estimated 5,000 such attacks occurred in more than 40 countries, killing about 50,000 people. The global rate grew from three a year in the 1980s to one a month in the 1990s to one a week from 2001 to 2003 to one a day from 2003 to 2015.
Terrorism experts say suicide bombings are pervasive because they generate publicity and require little expertise, resources or planning. Perhaps most importantly, they are almost impossible to prevent.
Until now, said Albuquerque businessman Robby Roberson. Sandia Lab reports that this company R3 Technologies and a group of other small businesses are developing a way to prevent suicide attacks by detecting concealed bombs before they go off. After a frustrating start, the group decided it needed more technical help and turned to the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) program, which pairs entrepreneurs with scientists and engineers at Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories.
“The suicide bomber can walk into a crowded place unnoticed and inflict a horrifying amount of death and destruction,” Roberson said. “It’s very hard to stop. There was no technology to deal with it.”
R3 found a partner in Sandia sensor expert JR Russell who has helped bring the company’s Concealed Bomb Detector, or CBD-1000, close to commercialization over the past two years. “JR has been all over it and really turned things around for our company,” Roberson said. “He brings in sharp people from Sandia. I love working with those guys.”
Russell said his role largely has been to develop ways to measure how well the technology works. He zeroed in on the device’s accuracy by analyzing false positives and pushed to redevelop software so it would more reliably detect a bomb threat. “After getting to know Robby and the team I got more and more interested in the problem,” said Russell, who enlisted Sandia engineers Matt Erdman and Michael Bratton in the project. “The technical part of me took over. Engineers want to validate the model and we needed to validate the performance of Robby’s system. We threw out a lot of the existing technology. Early versions were a good start, but not where the technology needed to be.”
