An urban environment simulation framework for evaluating novel distributed radiation detection architectures
Michael J. King, Bernard J. Harris, Maurice Toolin, Regina M. DuBord, Victor J. Skowronski, Martin A. LuSoto, Robert J. Estep, Sean M. Brennan, Bogdan R. Cosofret, Kirill N. Shokhirev · 2010
Protection of large and complex urban areas from radiological threats may be improved by employing a network of distributed radiation detectors. Among the many considerations involved in designing such a system are detector type, concept of operations, methods to collect and extract meaningful information from multiple data sources, and cost. We have developed a realistic simulation environment as an efficient method for accurately evaluating a variety of sensor queuing/routing schemes, distributed system architectures, and data fusion algorithms. This tool enables us to assesses and demonstrate overall system performance as a function of key operational and cost parameters. Early results show that a network of 8 fixed path and 5 random path NaI sensors achieves a Pd ~ 90% within 10 minutes against a 1 mCi Cs137 source released to 1500 possible random locations within the ~1.3 km × 1 km area centered around Philadelphia City Hall.