PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC. — Department of Homeland Security SBIR Phase I: H-SB017.1-009

Description

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop a PCS-Enabled Unattended Radiation Detection and Attribution System (PURDAS) that will be able to detect, identify, and attribute radiological sources to specific source carriers or conveyances. The PURDAS will include a COTS gamma and neutron detection capability as well as a visible camera, onboard processing, and wireless radios. PURDAS units will be able to wirelessly connect to each other to create a distributed sensor network and enable full 3D localization of sources and tracked conveyances. Source detection and identification will be performed by the Poisson Clutter Split (PCS) algorithm that increases detection sensitivity by a factor of 2-3 over current commercial detection algorithms and provides real-time isotope identification. Source localization will be performed by an optimized PCS-based approach developed for the DARPA SIGMA program. New advanced algorithms will be developed to detect and classify objects from the camera imagery and perform data fusion to attribute sources to individual conveyances. This capability will reduce the manpower requirements of continuous wide area search while maintaining the ability to rapidly interdict threats. PURDAS communications will be compatible with the SIGMA framework.