remote screening, location and mapping of abandoned ... · remote screening, location and mapping...

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Remote Screening, Location and Mapping

of abandoned Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) with C-agents

using drone-operable miniaturized chemical detector

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Clive Goodchild

BAE Systems

George C. Pallis, PhD

T4i engineering Ltd

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Background

• BAE Systems, Industry (Rochester, UK)

Electronic Systems

• T4i, SME (Loughborough Advanced Technology Innovation Center, UK)

Design and development of advanced chemical detectors

• EC FP7 demo project EDEN

Coordinated by BAE Systems

T4i: member of the SME platform

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CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Abandoned UXO with C-agents in numbers

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• 10% of 66 million artillery shells with C- agents from WWI located in Germany, France

and Belgium

• 300-400 thousands of UXO with C- agents in China (90 different locations)

• 150,000 UXO dumped in the sea after WWI

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Results of abandoned UXO with C-agents

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• Risk to the environment (toxics in the soil, sea water, fish, livestock)

• Threat to humans (especially those in agriculture or fishery)

• Threat of accidental release during construction works

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Projects in Europe for abandoned UXO with C-agents in the sea

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• MERCW, CHEMSEA, MODUM, DAIMON, UNBRELLA

• Use of underwater vehicles (ROV)

• GIS based systems for mapping contaminated sea areas

• GC-MS/MS, LC-MS/MS

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Projects in Europe for abandoned UXO with C-agents in the soil

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• Reports (e.g. Winkelmann and Spyra W)

• High resolution synthetic aperture, radar, ground penetrator radar are commonly used

• False alarms due to soil homogeneity and depth

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Method for location, detection and identification of buried UXO with C-agents

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Method needs to:

• be remotely operated, robust, field deployable

• have low false alarm rate (less than 10%)

• run fast screening (e.g. 1 m2 per 2-3 min)

• provide (bring back) samples for post-flight accredited analysis

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Drone Operable Vapour Examiner and Recorder (T4i DOVER™)

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• Ultra fast chemical detector

• Enhanced with wireless communications

• Three measurement modes: landed, hovering, whilst on flight

• Ground control station

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Images of T4i DOVER™ from recent demonstrations

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• West Yorkshire Police training facilities

• Moreton-in-Marsh Fire Service College EDEN project demo

The drone was provided and piloted by DroneOps Ltd, UK

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Capabilities of generic ground station (BAE Systems GGS )

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• A mission planning and situation awareness work

station

• Allows assessment of surveillance data from multiple

assets and to exchange information

• Assets, hazards and other tactical incident features are

shown in real time, geo-located on a 3D terrain map.

• Detailed data and video observations can be shown in

user-dockable display panes.

• Mission Tasking of different types of UAVs and UGVs

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Challenges to be addressed

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• Detection of ultra low concentrations of C-agents

• Hyphenation with spectrometers

• Compromise real time measurements in soil detection

• Address impacts of rapid changes of P, T, H to system performance

• Bring back samples

• Severe instrument contamination

• Need for miniaturization (reduced analytical performance, material selection, fast

miniaturized GC-IMS)

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Conclusions

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• Need to use novel design tools in combination with CFD modeling tools

• Need to select appropriate materials, electronics and micro-pneumatics for

miniaturization while keeping high performance

• Adapt the Generic Ground Station to meet the application requirements

CWD2017 conference, London, 25 May 2017

Contacts

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George C. Pallisg.pallis@t4i.co.uk

Clive Goodchildclive.goodchild@baesystems.co

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