Localization of Ionizing Radiation Sources via an Autonomous Robotic System

Abstract

The article discusses an autonomous and flexible robotic system for radiation monitoring. The detection part of the system comprises two NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors: one of these is collimated to allow directionally sensitive measurements and the other is used to calculate the dose rate and provides sufficient sensitivity. Special algorithms for autonomous operation of an unmanned ground vehicle were developed, utilizing radiation characteristics acquired by the implemented detection system. The system was designed to operate in three modes: radiation mapping, localization of discrete sources and inspection of a region of interest. All of the modes were verified experimentally. In the localization mode, the time required to localize ionizing radiation sources was reduced by half compared to the field mapping mode exploiting parallel trajectories; the localization accuracy remained the same. In the inspection mode, the desired functionality was achieved, and the changes in the sources arrangement were detected reliably in the experiments.