Sensor payloads for small unmanned aerial vehicles
- Nevada National Security Site, Mission Support and Test Services LLC, Special Technologies Laboratory
- Nevada National Security Site, Mission Support and Test Services LLC, Remote Sensing Laboratory-Nellis
- Nevada National Security Site, Mission Support and Test Services LLC, Remote Sensing Laboratory-Andrews
- H3D Inc.
- Virginia Tech University
Small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) are ideal for delivering sensors into areas that are inaccessible or too dangerous for human entry or manned aircraft over-flights. The systems can fly low and slow for enhanced sensitivity, and they can get into tight spaces where ordinary aircraft would never attempt to fly. We have configured and flown sensor payloads for radiation, chemical, and optical detection on small fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft. For radiation detection we have flown packages consisting of sodium iodide (NaI), lanthanum bromide (LaBr3), and cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) gamma spectrometers, and we have also flown a CZT gamma imaging detector. The chemical sensing package consists of surface catalytic detectors for real-time chemical sensing, and a multi-tube chemical sampler that can be post-flight analyzed with a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS). The optical package comprises a small spectrometer with wavelength sensitivity from 200 nm to 900 nm, and it has successfully collected burst light spectra from small explosive detonations. All the sensor packages provide telemetry, GPS coordinates, LIDAR distance ranging, and absolute time of day to microsecond accuracy. Payload weights range from less than 1 kg up to 5.5 kg, and they have flown on Sandstorm and T-28 fixed wing drones, on a custom-built heavy-lift hex-copter, a 3DR Solo quad-copter, and a T-Rex 700 helicopter. Communications are over 2.4 GHz, 915 MHz radios, and 4G LTE cellular data links. Real time data feeds from the sensor payloads to web browser clients anywhere in the world are possible via a virtual server on the Amazon AWS cloud.
- Research Organization:
- Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), North Las Vegas, NV (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Emergency Operations
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-NA0003624
- OSTI ID:
- 1498522
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/NV/03624-0359
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Military Sensing Symposia, Vienna, Virginia, February 25 - 27, 2019
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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