Ranger TA: In-situ Aquatic Biomonitoring Toxicity Alarm

A mobile platform is proposed for aquatic in-situ toxicant detection featuring living biosensors. This platform or BioSensor Suite comprises a sentinel species biosensor, water quality monitoring sensors and a water sampler. The BioSensor Suite will bedeployable as an integrated sensor package on the Ranger TA (Toxic Alarm), a 10 lb micro-UUV. The proposed effort will include system design, fabrication, sensor integration, multi-sensor fusion, laboratory and field trials. The proposed system leveragesPhase I accomplishments and will enable a mobile, man portable aquatic biological early warning system (BEWS) to become a reality. Multi-agent capabilities being developed in other efforts will enable dynamic retasking of groups of the proposed platformto rapidly and accurately characterize the extent of a toxicant contamination. The system will fill applications in military and civilian settings where toxicant conditions are suspected in aquatic settings.The proposed technology will have military andcivilian benefits. The initial target military application is an early warning system to detect chem/bio contamination of drinking water sources for forward deployed troops prior to filtration by Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Units (ROWPU) andTactical Water Purification Systems (TWPS). In civilian applications, the technology has applications in homeland defense and environmental monitoring. Homeland defense applications include monitoring for toxicants in drinking water reservoirs on aperiodic basis or in the event of a suspected asymmetric attack. Environmental monitoring includes detection and localizing toxicants in public bodies of water, particularly frequently populated beaches.