Autonomous Radiological Survey Systems for Locating Fired Depleted Uranium Munitions - 19212

Conference · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2019

OSTI ID:23002991

Unz, Ronald; McCown, Jay; Neal, Devin; Hartzburg, Jake; McDevitt, Sam; Randle, Joshua; Pearson, Jimmy; Waggoner, Charles ^[1]; Larson, Steve; Ballard, John ^[2]

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1. Institute for Clean Energy Technology - Mississippi State University (United States)
2. Environmental Laboratory - U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (United States)

An ensemble of autonomous radiological survey platforms that utilize a suite of scintillation detectors that can be used to conduct radiological site characterization, assist with remediation efforts, or conduct site clearance in accordance with the Multi-Agency Radiologic Survey and Site Investigation Manual are described. The overall systems are composed of inorganic scintillators, light detection and ranging, global positioning, inertial guidance, wireless telemetry, and signal processing systems. Two primary designs are discussed: a three-meter wide platform and multiple half-meter-wide systems. The survey systems are used to conduct radiological surveys over large areas autonomously, without human involvement. The three-meter system has been designed to cover large, open areas free of obstacles. Smaller robotic platforms are designed to handle a large range of terrain types and to conduct surveys in areas that are plagued with obstacles, such as bushes and trees. The primary design criteria for these systems were accurate locating of fired depleted uranium (DU) munitions. Several U.S. Army facilities have remnant DU material on active firing ranges where DU rounds have been used in performance evaluations. Many ranges also have unexploded ordinance (UXO) challenges which are problematic for conducting walkover surveys. The combination of having active DU impacted firing ranges with UXO make conducting site characterization surveys very difficult and hazardous. The autonomous surveying systems allow radiological scanning data collection to be scheduled around range activities and reduces human exposure to ionizing radiation and UXO. All of the robotic platforms act independently, and are controlled by a centralized computer system via a wireless telemetry system. The central computer system is responsible for setting up survey units, survey paths, and scheduling which platform is to complete the scheduled survey. Unit selection and scheduling are completed by technicians, and the work is conducted autonomously by these survey platforms. The survey areas and survey paths are transmitted to each platform through the telemetry system. Radiological and positional data are collected by the systems and transmitted back to the central computer system in real-time. Collected data is saved to a database for post-survey analysis or can be analyzed in real-time. Analysis of the radiological data is used to construct radiation intensity and estimated DU concentration maps. Automatically generated reports for each survey unit will provide range managers with: survey coverage data maps, estimated uranium concentration maps, and a detailed list of areas that are above a user defined concentration. This paper describes the components of each of the surveying systems, their capabilities, and limitations. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 23002991
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--21-WM-19212
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
AUTOMATION
CONCENTRATION RATIO
DEPLETED URANIUM
DESIGN
IONIZING RADIATIONS
PERFORMANCE
PHOSPHORS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
REMEDIAL ACTION
REMOTE SENSING
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
TELEMETRY