Case Studies

Concealed Bomb Detection: Stand-off Bomb

Problem
Terrorists hide explosives in luggage and vehicles to transport the explosives for use in Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which caused over 40% of the US deaths in Afghanistan in 2009. M2 Technologies and Kansas State University (KSU) are developing a technology to detect hidden explosives from a range of up to 10m. Initially, the technology would be used in places like military checkpoints and airports to screen luggage and vehicles. Current development has progressed with laboratory instruments, but the standard software controlling them does not allow the needed control of the instruments, and is awkward to use. Ease of use will become increasingly important as the technology transitions from the laboratory to the field.

Solution
CABEM is developing a GUI-based program to control the SBD instruments in order to integrate and present results to the user, and store results in a database for further analysis later. The instrument software is split between the computer controlling the instruments near the object being scanned, and a control computer in a safer location. The instrument control GUI will reduce the time for researchers to analyze a single sample from days to minutes increasing accuracy and response time in the detection of hidden explosives.