Simulation of Gamma Radiation Mapping Using an Unmanned Aerial System

Gábrlík, Petr; Lázna, Tomáš

doi:10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.07.163

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Benefiting from the capability of operating without ground georeferencing targets, the solution is perfectly convenient for radiation‐related tasks; the products are applicable in UGV trajectory planning under difficult conditions. Moreover, our simulations suggest that the surface model may find use in aerial radiation mapping, too (Gabrlik & Lazna, 2018). In radiation detection system‐equipped UASs, flying at a constant altitude above ground level (AGL) collects more consistent data compared to flying at a constant mean sea level (MSL) altitude, thus making source localization more accurate.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…The adaptive thresholding method was verified with both simulated (Gabrlik & Lazna, 2018) and previously measured terrestrial data.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…In UAS‐based radiation mapping, the common approach involves operating at a constant MSL altitude (Christie et al, 2017; Martin et al, 2015), an option applicable at locations that lack significant height differences. As indicated within one of our previous papers (Gabrlik & Lazna, 2018), major variations in the flight height above ground level produce nonhomogeneous and unreliable data; thus, a means to secure a constant AGL height is essential in hilly sites. The proposed method utilizes a photogrammetry‐based DEM, the output of the initial UAS flight, to adjust the radiation mapping trajectory, that is, to modify the vertical trajectory components.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 95%

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An automated heterogeneous robotic system for radiation surveys: Design and field testing

Gábrlík

Lázna

Jílek

et al. 2021

Journal of Field Robotics

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During missions involving radiation exposure, unmanned robotic platforms may embody a valuable tool, especially thanks to their capability of replacing human operators in certain tasks to eliminate the health risks associated with such an environment. Moreover, rapid development of the technology allows us to increase the automation rate, making the human operator generally less important within the entire process. This article presents a multirobotic system designed for highly automated radiation mapping and source localization. Our approach includes a three‐phase procedure comprising sequential deployment of two diverse platforms, namely, an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), to perform aerial photogrammetry, aerial radiation mapping, and terrestrial radiation mapping. The central idea is to produce a sparse dose rate map of the entire study site via the UAS and, subsequently, to perform detailed UGV‐based mapping in limited radiation‐contaminated regions. To accomplish these tasks, we designed numerous methods and data processing algorithms to facilitate, for example, digital elevation model‐based terrain following for the UAS, automatic selection of the regions of interest, obstacle map‐based UGV trajectory planning, and source localization. The overall usability of the multirobotic system was demonstrated by means of a 1‐day, authentic experiment, namely, a fictitious car accident including the loss of several radiation sources. The ability of the system to localize radiation hotspots and individual sources has been verified.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…The adaptive thresholding method was verified with both simulated (Gabrlik & Lazna, 2018) and previously measured terrestrial data.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 95%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An automated heterogeneous robotic system for radiation surveys: Design and field testing

Gábrlík

Lázna

Jílek

et al. 2021

Journal of Field Robotics

Self Cite

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“…The use of unmanned vehicles for supporting the important task of mapping gamma radiation levels and the localization of a radiation source is advantageous for many reasons, most of all for health issues. UAVs showed to be beneficial (Gabrlik, Lazna, 2018) specially when the terrain is difficult to access. However, we aim to go further and precisely localize a source on ground through modelling of measured values, which gives an additional opportunity to estimate radiation levels on ground, for e.g.…”

Section: Radiation Source Localizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precise Radionuclide Localization Using Uav-Based Lidar And Gamma Probe With Real-Time Processing

Schraml

Hinterhofer²,

Pfennigbauer³

et al. 2019

Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.

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<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> In this work we propose an effective radiation source localization device employing a RIEGL VUX-1UAV laser scanner and a highly sensitive Hotzone Technologies gamma radiation probe mounted on a RiCOPTER UAV combined with real-time data processing. The on-board processing and radio communication system integrated within the UAV enables instant and continuously updated access to georeferenced 3D lidar point clouds and gamma radiation intensities. Further processing is done fully automated on the ground. We present a novel combination of both the 3D laser data and the gamma readings within an optimization algorithm that can locate the radioactive source in real-time. Furthermore, this technique can be used to estimate an on-ground radiation intensity, which also considers the actual topography as well as radiation barriers like vegetation or buildings. Results from field tests with real radioactive sources show that single sources can be located precisely, even if the source was largely covered. Outcomes are displayed to the person in charge in an intuitive and user-friendly way, e.g. on a tablet. The whole system is designed to operate in real-time and while the UAV is in the air, resulting in a highly flexible and possibly life-saving asset for firstresponders in time-critical scenarios.</p>

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“…[ 11 , 12 ] presents methods for surveying with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) whereby position and height information is used to adjust the aerial measurements to improve the accuracy of the ground map. Gabrlik et al [ 13 ] demonstrated a processing method for radiation mapping source localisation using UAVs, where the system used the inherent topology of the environment to vary the above ground flight altitudes to enhance the radiation map data. Ground vehicles or walking surveys ([ 14 ]) can overcome issues with source-sensor separation by significantly reducing the distances, however, this limits the area that can be surveyed in a timely manner.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radioactive Source Localisation via Projective Linear Reconstruction

White

Wood

Martin

et al. 2021

Sensors

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Radiation mapping, through the detection of ionising gamma-ray emissions, is an important technique used across the nuclear industry to characterise environments over a range of length scales. In complex scenarios, the precise localisation and activity of radiological sources becomes difficult to determine due to the inability to directly image gamma photon emissions. This is a result of the potentially unknown number of sources combined with uncertainties associated with the source-detector separation—causing an apparent ‘blurring’ of the as-detected radiation field relative to the true distribution. Accurate delimitation of distinct sources is important for decommissioning, waste processing, and homeland security. Therefore, methods for estimating the precise, ‘true’ solution from radiation mapping measurements are required. Herein is presented a computational method of enhanced radiological source localisation from scanning survey measurements conducted with a robotic arm. The procedure uses an experimentally derived Detector Response Function (DRF) to perform a randomised-Kaczmarz deconvolution from robotically acquired radiation field measurements. The performance of the process is assessed on radiation maps obtained from a series of emulated waste processing scenarios. The results demonstrate a Projective Linear Reconstruction (PLR) algorithm can successfully locate a series of point sources to within 2 cm of the true locations, corresponding to resolution enhancements of between 5× and 10×.

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Simulation of Gamma Radiation Mapping Using an Unmanned Aerial System

Cited by 12 publications

References 11 publications

An automated heterogeneous robotic system for radiation surveys: Design and field testing

An automated heterogeneous robotic system for radiation surveys: Design and field testing

Precise Radionuclide Localization Using Uav-Based Lidar And Gamma Probe With Real-Time Processing

Radioactive Source Localisation via Projective Linear Reconstruction

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