RADIATION DETECTIONQuickly and Precisely Localizing Radioactive Material
Radioactive, chemical or biological substances are undetectable to humans in threatening situations and difficult to detect with remote sensing. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE use specially equipped drones and robots to quickly and precisely localize radioactive sources.
Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive substances (CBRNE substances for short) can pose a threat to the public and to emergency services. For example, in 2023, a cesium capsule measuring just a few millimeters in size that had fallen from a truck led to a massive search operation in Australia. The recent increasing number of hybrid attacks and various destabilization attempts have exacerbated the threat situation. Two research departments at Fraunhofer FKIE are therefore working intensively to address the question of how we can use drones (unmanned aerial systems, UAS) and robots (unmanned ground vehicles, UGV) to provide the best possible support to people in these threatening situations. The performance of systems like this has been repeatedly assessed over many years at the European Robotics Hackathon (EnRicH) at the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant and at the European Land Robot Trial (ELROB). These events are both jointly organized by researchers from the Cognitive Mobile Systems department in alternating years. They contribute to testing drones and robots for practical suitability under realistic operating conditions and to further developing them based on the results.
Highly Automated UAS for Detecting Radioactive Sources
Under contract to the Bundeswehr Research Institute for Protective Technologies and CBRN Protection (WIS), researchers in the Sensor Data and Information Fusion department are developing an UAS that can quickly and precisely identify and localize radioactive sources. An technology demonstrator has already been tested in field trials at the WIS site in Munster. This system can precisely track down a radioactive source to within a few meters in only a few minutes. “The cesium capsule in Australia could only be found after days of searching with handheld detectors. We could have found the radioactive capsule much more quickly using our UAS,” says Claudia Bender, a research scientist at Fraunhofer FKIE, who designed the technology demonstrator together with her colleague Torsten Fiolka.
The Detection Process Is Characterized by an Exploration Phase and a Targeted Search Phase
The researchers are particularly specialized in complex data processing, sensor data fusion and automation. The detection process is highly automated and consists of an exploration phase and a search phase. During the exploration phase, the UAS flies over the target area and continuously collects data from the surroundings. As soon as a deviation from the background radiation is detected, the system switches to search mode.
