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Uncommon Sensors May Help Secure Our Ports and Borders October 2007
Sixteen million containers enter the United States every year, whether by land, sea, or air. While the majority of the cargo is legitimate—from automobiles and appliances to machinery and industrial parts—the sheer volume of arriving freight is simply too large to be searched thoroughly. This situation makes smuggling and terrorism a very real threat. Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) materials, as well as weapons and other contraband, could slip past security agents conducting only random spot checks. Clearly, the U.S. needs a screening system that can identify CBRNE substances at major ports of entry. A team of MITRE engineers, including Brian Flanagan, principal signal processing engineer; Grace Hwang, senior sensors systems engineer; and Samar Guharay, lead signal processing engineer, is tackling this issue by analyzing and developing automatic sensing capabilities to detect illicit materials. Their work will contribute to developing concepts to assist in the cohesive detection, screening, and interception of CBRNE at U.S. ports and border crossings. "We're using modeling and simulation, which lets us investigate the potential benefits of technology before acquiring or building it, to examine the effective use of a multi-sensor system that will catch CBRNE materials," explains Marcus Glenn, a senior principal systems engineer and co-principal investigator on the project. "The technology would function as part of an overall U.S. layered defense system to detect CBRNE, weapons, and contraband." This mission-focused initiative is entitled "Sensor Technologies for Border and Cargo Security," and is a project under the MITRE Technology Program, the company's internal research and development arm. Much of the support for the work comes from the corporation's Internal Revenue Service-sponsored federally funded research and development center, which focuses on the needs of civil agencies. Tying it Together Glenn and co-principal investigator L. Danny Tromp lead a team of innovative engineers who are studying the modeling capabilities of a variety of approaches to border and cargo security. "While different commercial vendors currently offer different security solutions, we're trying to get to the ground truth to see what works on an 'apples to apples' basis," Glenn states. Adds Tromp, "From a technical viewpoint, we're looking at what models already exist, how they interact, and how to unify them into one comprehensive capability." In viewing the challenge from a broader systems perspective, MITRE experts are in the process of testing sensor models that are multi-purpose and can be brought together in different scenarios. "Perhaps there is a checkpoint, for example, where guards need to determine if a truck is carrying suspicious cargo," explains Glenn. "We have conducted tests with simulated radiological material on a truck to see how sensors react to it from a significant distance away." The testing included sensor models that scanned materials using X-rays, Gamma rays, and neutron technologies. "Maybe the truck is carrying pesticides, which causes false alarms in explosives sensors, or kitty litter, which triggers radiation sensors," Glenn says. "Our aim is to minimize the false-alarm rate and increase accuracy by fusing readings from an entire sensor network." Whether the sensors are meant to detect certain chemicals in the air or scan a vehicle using X-ray technology, Glenn emphasizes that one of the challenges of the research is to develop specific sensing physics for the different physical phenomena that might be encountered at U.S. borders and ports. Applying Tools That Are a Cut Above Certainly, it's complex to unite and test independent sensors that detect the diverse characteristics of radiological, chemical, and biological samples. "There is a definite need to develop a modeling capability that investigates different approaches to border and cargo security," Glenn says. Fortunately, the project is able to leverage a cutting-edge, MITRE-developed module, known as the Netted Sensor Research Initiative Testbed, which identifies sensor best practices. "Netted sensors are collections of sensors that can communicate with each other in order to form a network that collaborates to solve a problem," explains Tromp. "The problem could be as simple as turning on a light." Netted sensing requires groups of sensors, usually quite small ones, to provide overlapping coverage that gives the best integrated picture of the environment. The power of this kind of network can expedite the development of actionable knowledge—whether keeping track of military operations on a battlefield or monitoring incoming cargo shipments. Glenn says, "There is a simulation component to the Netted Sensors Testbed that supports simulation-based acquisition analysis within a flexible, integrated infrastructure. We're using it to analyze how a network of heterogeneous CBRNE sensors can be used in conjunction with terahertz imaging to intercept suspicious materials." (Terahertz imaging uses the properties of terahertz waves, which are unique in their ability to "see" into and through materials like fog, fabric, or wood that often can't be analyzed by more conventional methods, such as X-rays.) Screening for Security By using this sophisticated simulation element, the MITRE team is in the process of both acquiring and assembling first-order models for some of the border and cargo security sensors of interest. The engineers tackling the project will continue to test sensor models for systems that scan using X-ray, Gamma ray, and neutron technologies. They will also work on models that can detect radiation, chemical, and biological samples, and identify those that have the best performance potential. Yet another challenge involves bringing together data from different sensing modalities, whether at the raw sensor signal level or the higher data extraction level. "We hope this research will ultimately result in lowering the rate of false alarms," Tromp says. Concludes Glenn, "A system that's able to screen the large amount of cargo entering the U.S. at borders and ports of entry will solve a broad range of our sponsor's needs, and contribute tremendously to improving homeland security." —by Cheryl Scaparrotta Related Information Articles and News
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