Abstract

Large scale factories such as steel, wood, construction, recycling plants and landfills involve the procurement of raw material which may include radiating parts, that must be monitored, because potentially dangerous for workers. Manufacturing operations are carried out in unstructured environments, where fully autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) inspection is hardly applicable. In this work we report on the development of a haptic teleoperated UAV for localization of radiation sources in industrial plants. Radiation sources can be localized and identified thanks to a novel CZT-based custom gamma-ray detector integrated on the UAV, providing light, compact, spectroscopic, and low power operation. UAV operation with a human in the loop allows an expert operator to focus on selected candidate areas, thereby optimizing short flight mission in face of the constrained acquisition times required by nuclear inspection. To cope with the reduced situational awareness of the remote operator, force feedback is exploited as an additional sensory channel. The developed prototype has been demonstrated both in relevant and operational environments.

Highlights

  • Secondary material of uranium mines results in a legacy radiological contamination [1], and gold mining may produce the accumulation of radioactive materials in certain stages of the process [2]

  • The developed prototype proved to be an effective tool for localization and identification of nuclear material dispersed in the environment or illicitly stocked in industrial plants

  • The effectiveness of the approach was demonstrated in the lab, in a relevant environment in the presence of an intense 192Ir nuclear source located in a service area, and in an operational environment consisting of an inter-municipal waste disposal landfill

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Summary

Scientific and Industrial Motivations, Goals and Objectives

The presence of radioactive material is a real risk in different contexts such as steel, wood, construction, recycling industries, mines, and landfills. It is crucial to investigate alternative strategies for aerial teleoperation, which provide additional information sources to the operator by exploiting signals from sensors Such information is helpful to increase the perception of the environment constraints, which can increase the situation awareness of the operator and improve efficiency and task performance. The study was concerned with the general goal of developing technologies for improving the interaction between operator and machines in challenging industrial contexts by the exploitation of a haptic user interface for remote control of an Unmanned Aerial vehicle (UAV). Flights were performed in a waste disposal landfill in Novellara, Reggio Emilia, Italy, monitoring the specific radiation levels and checking for any hidden radiating source

State of the Art
Problem Statement and Proposed Approach
Developed Technologies, Methodologies and Tools
Testing and Validation of Results
Laboratory Test
Test of the Prototype in a Relevant Environment
Test of the Prototype in Operational Environment
Findings
Conclusions and Future Research
Full Text

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