SBIR-STTR Award

Mapping radiological and nuclear materials over large areas in the context of potential structural and battlefield damage with minimum risk to the Warfighter remains a challenge in the defense community. The current state-of-the-art radiation detection systems require multiple stationary measurements to produce multiple images of large areas in 2D. This project will leverage recent advancements in 3D radiation mapping and data fusion to enable enhanced CONOPS for mapping radioactive sources over large areas using multiple manned and unmanned systems. We will utilize the 3D Scene Data Fusion technology, which enables the full scene reconstruction and the localization of radiological sources in 3D and in real-time, providing high sensitivity and accuracy in the detection and identification of radioactive sources while providing contextual information critical for situational awareness. Using the multi-sensor, 3D, real-time radiation mapping Localization and Mapping Platform (LAMP) as a foundation, this project will develop a software architecture for simultaneous multi-system radiation mapping and fusion of multiple 3D maps to produce a single, global map. If successful, this project will provide new means in the effective deployment of multiple 3D radiation mapping and data fusion systems in critical and complex environments while minimizing time, cost, and risks to the Warfighter.

GRI will develop the capability to fuse 3D map and radiation data from multiple 3D radiation mapping systems in real-time into a single, cohesive global map of an operating environment. This new capability will automatically fuse 3D map and radiation data from the GRI Localization and Mapping Platform (LAMP) systems on ground vehicles and unmanned aerial systems (UASs). This capability will be built to track and localize systems in both GPS-enabled and GPS-denied environments from small-scale (e.g. single building) to large areas (1 square km and more). This 3D global radiation mapping and data fusion capability will extend the capabilities of the core GRI-LAMP, which fuses 3D visual data with radiation data from a single LAMP system to create detailed, visual representations of radiological threats and hazards in an environment in real-time. We will accomplish this through continued software and hardware developments based on the initial results from Phase I to extend the 3D global radiation mapping capability to real-time 3D mapping and data fusion. By enhancing LAMP’s edge computing capabilities, we will also enable live updates to the 3D global radiation map as the LAMP systems continuously collect data while moving through an environment on multiple platforms. Phase II developments will build on the developments from Phase I, as we successfully demonstrated the ability to combine multiple 3D radiation maps from LAMP systems on multiple platforms in both GPS-enabled and GPS-denied environments in offline processing over large areas, up to 350,000 square meters. GRI’s 3D, real-time, global mapping capability will significantly reduce end user burden for data collection, aggregation, analysis and communication by providing a single common operating picture through automatic data collection, fusion, and correlation of 3D radiation maps from multiple LAMP systems on manned and unmanned platforms to quickly and efficiently identify threats and hazards for a diverse set of applications. GRI is pursuing significant opportunities to transition this technology for both commercial use, as well as for DOD applications through this SBIR effort.