Thrust 3: Explosives Sensor Systems
The focus of this thrust is to develop the basic science to enable successful design and implementation of explosive detection and identification systems using multisensor systems and unconventional approaches including alternative signatures such as behavioral and motion cues. Of particular interest are hybrid systems that use multiple modalities that combine information about diverse and complementary properties of explosives, plus information about human factors. Measurable properties provided by the suite of sensors include x-ray absorption or backscatter characteristics at different energies, emission measurements in multiple spectral bands, geometric shape, nuclear composition, thermal and visual imagery as well as unconventional signatures like video motion patterns and anomalous behavior of suspected individuals. The basic science will focus on methodologies for selecting appropriate combinations of sensors, extracting critical features from each sensor, fusing the information across sensors for optimal detection and identification of threats, and actively controlling the sensing and processing of information to improve the sensitivity and specificity of explosive detection systems.
We plan to consider both portal and stand-off-detection systems, motivated by difficult explosives detection problems such as the detection of suicide bombers and vehicle-mounted and hand-carried IEDs. Portal detection systems offer the potential for controlled sensing environments and simultaneous acquisition of multisensor data with reduced clutter ambiguity. In contrast, stand-off detection systems work with weak signals in uncontrolled backgrounds, where simultaneous multisensor measurements and controlled sensing geometries are difficult to achieve. Stand-off multisensor systems will be based on networks of heterogeneous sensors fusing information collected over space and time. Our goal is to develop technology for systems that can scale to realistic throughputs, and hence will operate with significant amounts of autonomy, involving human operators primarily for critical decision tasks.
> F3-A Next Generation Image Formation for Portal Systems
> F3-B Dynamic Multi-modal Imaging for Portal-based Screening
> F3-C Sensor Management for High Throughput Screening
> F3-D Compressive Sensing for Portal Screening
> F3-E Multi-modal Sensor-Networks
> F3-F Dynamics-Based Detection and Tracking of Explosive Threats