Hybrid emergency radiation detection: a wireless sensor network application for consequence management of a radiological release

Abstract

The Hybrid Emergency Radiation Detection (HERD) system is a rapidly deployable ad-hoc wireless sensor network for monitoring the radiation hazard associated with a radiation release. The system is designed for low power, small size, low cost, and rapid deployment in order to provide early notification and minimize exposure. The many design tradeoffs, decisions, and challenges in the implementation of this wireless sensor network design will be presented and compared to the commercial systems available. Our research in a scaleable modular architectural highlights the need and implementation of a system level approach that provides flexibility and adaptability for a variety of applications. This approach seeks to minimize power, provide mission specific specialization, and provide the capability to upgrade the system with the most recent technology advancements by encapsulation and modularity. The implementation of a low power, widely available Real Time Operating System (RTOS) for multitasking with an improvement in code maintenance, portability, and reuse will be presented. Finally future design enhancements technology trends affecting wireless sensor networks will be presented.

Distributed calibration and tracking with low-power image sensors

“…The DISCERN framework is implemented on the ERI platform [7], a generic low-power modular sensor node which is composed of pluggable hardware modules (e.g., power, processor, sensor, gps, and radio). To accommodate imaging as a sensor modality, we adapt both the hardware and software to increase the computational power of a sensor node while maintaining low power consumption during periods of inactivity.…”

“…The small form factor, wireless communication, and battery power enables a quickly adjustable and easily deployable system for time-dependent events. Yet, current WSN platforms [7,8,1] are limited by the inability to readily incorporate images and computer vision techniques, where relevant orthogonal information for surveillance resides. When dealing with small amounts of information at controlled intervals, a centralized data poll is feasible on the limited available bandwidth, but the raw data from images and, even more generally, data from large deployments of sensor networks would quickly overload the wireless communication.…”

Wireless Radiation Monitoring System

“…These information and GPS (Global Positioning System) position are sent to a control center via ZigBee and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) (Gascon and Yaza 2011). Another application for radiation detection is proposed in (Kyker et al 2004). It is based on ad-hoc wireless sensor networks, the authors aiming to realize a system which provide flexibility and adaptability for a variety of applications.…”

A Wireless-Enabled Radiation Detector Using Micromachined Steel and Glass Elements in a to-5 Package

“…We have previously reported Marconibased transmission using micromachined test structures [2]. Miniaturized wireless-enabled radiation sensors could someday be used in easily redeployable or mobile network configurations [3,4].…”