RADRON: Cooperative Localization of Ionizing Radiation Sources by MAVs with Compton Cameras

TL;DR

This paper introduces a cooperative MAV system equipped with lightweight Compton cameras for real-time localization and tracking of radioactive sources, leveraging onboard data processing and dynamic swarm coordination.

Contribution

It presents a novel cooperative approach using miniature Compton cameras on MAVs for real-time radiation source localization and tracking, enabling agile and efficient detection.

Findings

Successful real-time localization of radiation sources.

Effective swarm coordination improves detection accuracy.

Capability to track moving radiation sources.

Abstract

We present a novel approach to localizing radioactive material by cooperating Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). Our approach utilizes a state-of-the-art single-detector Compton camera as a highly sensitive, yet miniature detector of ionizing radiation. The detector's exceptionally low weight (40 g) opens up new possibilities of radiation detection by a team of cooperating agile MAVs. We propose a new fundamental concept of fusing the Compton camera measurements to estimate the position of the radiation source in real time even from extremely sparse measurements. The data readout and processing are performed directly onboard and the results are used in a dynamic feedback to drive the motion of the vehicles. The MAVs are stabilized in a tightly cooperating swarm to maximize the information gained by the Compton cameras, rapidly locate the radiation source, and even track a moving radiation source.