Ground-Based Autonomous Robotic Inspection of General Aviation for Radiological Threats

The goal of this project is to develop a ground robotic system that performs automated radiological screening of general aviation aircraft.The robotic system will integrate a commercial off-the-shelf mobile platform, a manipulator arm, and radiation detectors with 3D vision sensors and path planning software to produce a highly-automated, robust solution for initial and secondary aircraft screening.The system will be designed such that, following identification of the target aircraft by an operator, the robot will traverse a path around the aircraft to determine its 3D shape using an onboard vision sensor.It will then plan an initial screening path for the base and manipulator arm, and execute the initial and secondary screening paths as needed to identify, localize, and characterize any radiation anomalies. The project is divided into three phases.Phase 1 will focus on development of a conceptual design, including creation of performance goals, selection of COTS components, creation of an integrated CAD design, and production of simulation results illustrating system performance.Phase 2 will focus on creation and demonstration of a prototype system, to include testing on one or more general aviation aircraft in a realistic environment.Phase 3 will focus on product development for other applications of interest to commercial entities and/or DHS.It is envisioned that commercialization opportunities for this system exist for a variety of applications such as nuclear security, nuclear safety, decontamination work, routing surveys of nuclear facilities, and screenings at any facilities with a concern about radiological threats.