Robotic Force Health Protection from Chem-Bio Agents and IEDs

This SBIR proposal is to develop a hybrid Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Surface Enhanced Raman (SERS) chembio detection system, for use in analyzing substances in the field. Detectable materials include chemical and biological weapons agents, demolition materials, water and food contaminants in troop supplies and for humanitarian analysis purposes, and for hazardous and toxic industrial materials (HAZMATs). We previously built a portable LIBS system in a Phase I grant effort. We now aim in Phase II to: i) Advance the prototype version of Phase I LIBS system, ii) Incorporate new Raman technology into the robot detection system, iii) Gather microbial spectra for the hybrid system, and iv) Develop a combined query and storage solution for the acquired data sets. The resulting “LIBSERS” device would be portable, remotely operated, robot mounted, and capable of broad scale analysis of chemical, biological, and structural materials. The sampling time and prep would be negligible, and the results delivered instantaneously in a reported format from both technologies. Such a product has a market in military and civilian HAZMAT niches, for the rapid portable identification of pathogens, toxins, chemical agents, biological weapons, and toxic health threats.