Intelligent Radiation Awareness Drone: Creation of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Radiation Hazard-Guided Navigation

Abstract

Radiation surveillance over large areas is necessary to measure background environmental radiation levels or respond to nuclear accidents or terrorist events. Current methods of radiological surveying are time consuming and resource demanding and would be greatly improved with the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a radiation-detecting payload. The efficiency of such a UAV can be increased by using a hazard-guided navigation algorithm which actively searches for hazards using all available information, instead of using a standard rectilinear search pattern. The growth of the drone hobbyist community has enabled an interdisciplinary team of undergraduate students to design and build an Intelligent Radiation Awareness Drone (iRAD). iRAD is a multicopter drone containing a complex integrated system which will include a small radiation-detection payload and be capable of autonomous operation. The project aims to create a more efficient method of radiological surveying and provide continued research opportunities for undergraduate students in nuclear engineering and related fields.