Advanced Robotic Detection of Chemical Agents, Toxic Industrial Gases, and IEDs for Force Health Protection.

We propose to develop a novel chemical agent sensor through a joint collaborative effort involving; IonFinity, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, and Imaginative Technologies. This chemical sensor consists of 1) a new and powerful detector called a Differential Mobility Spectrometer developed by Imaginative Technologies team member Dr. Gary Eiceman in collabortion with Sionex, and 2) a novel “soft-ionization” method that does not fragment or multiply-ionize sampled species of interest. Our goal is to develop and prototype an inexpensive, compact – 2 Kg, field portable, stand-off, high-efficiency, rugged, integrated detection and identification system (TRL 6 ) for chemical & biowarfare agents; industrial toxic gases, and chemical components of Improvised Explosive Devices in air. water or solid and integrate it with one of the emerging family of Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems compliant unmanned ground vehicles intended for medical force health protection and combat casualty care missions. The resultant device will detect chemicals at ppt to low ppb levels after 10 seconds. Detection levels are similar to those of mass spectrometry but without the complicated bulky vacuum system.