Development of an Integrated Robotic Radioisotope Identification and Location System

摘要

This project involves integrating a commercially available Hyper Pure Germanium (HPGe) system within a robotic base in order to inspect an area for either radioisotopes that could be used for a radiological dispersal device (RDD) or are classified as Special Nuclear Material (SNM). In operation, at a given location in the room, the robot rotates about its circumference searching for radionuclides. The robot then estimates the direct ion of a source of interest. The robot can then be moved to a new location to repeat the process. With three locations and a direction to the course from each, a program then calculates the estimated location of the source of interest. The project also investigated statistical properties related to isotope identification software and the effects of changing the settings of the program and the setup of the experiment.