GAMON-Drone

Overview

GAMON-Drone is a compact and light weight spectrometer specifically designed for UAV environmental radiation protection, inspection, and site remediation after the dispersion of radiological or nuclear material. The system can be used as a measurement device for first responders for the exploration of hazardous areas.
GAMON-Drone system is designed to offer the best combination of portability, low power consumption and performance. The unit is assembled in a lightweight enclosure that contains both the Scintillator Detector and the Digital Signal Processing Electronics.

GAMON-Drone can identify gamma-emitting radionuclides and differentiate them based on the category they belong to, distinguishing between NORM, medical and industrial.
GAMON-Drone runs spectrum analysis algorithms that can perform simultaneous identification of multiple radiological sources and provides quantitative measurements in terms of dose and activity per radionuclide with its built-in detector efficiency calibration.
The user can select the isotopes to be identified from the library and adjust the thresholds of the isotope related alarms. The spectrum stabilization can be obtained with the identification of natural occurring radionuclides as the 40K.
The gamma spectrometer is composed by an inorganic scintillation crystal. The system integrates inorganic scintillator with of configurable volume. Standard system versions integrate NaI(Tl) 2”x2”, CeBr3 1.5”x1.5” or CeBr3 2”x2”. The standard versions scintillators are the best compromise between resolution and low background measurements. LaBr3(Ce) can be integrated on request. Optional NaIL® detector can be integrated, which gives the capability of detecting neutrons.
Signals from scintillation detector is pre-amplified and the pulse is digitized by a 12 bit 62.5 MHz fADC. Digital signal shaping and pulse height analysis is performed by a digital MCA with 2048 channels.
The detector is configured to collect gamma interactions in the energy range from 30 keV to 3 MeV. It provides statistically accurate dose rate measurements starting from 1 nSv/h.
GAMON-Drone is provided with Ethernet and USB interfaces through waterproof connectors. It connects to its ground control station with wired interface as a portable spectrometer and can alternatively switch seamless to the wireless radio communication link of the provided drone.

The GAMON-Drone integrates an ARM based CPU that analyses data and stores the measures in an internal non-volatile memory of 8 GB. The GAMON- Drone is provided with an IP65 tablet that act as its ground control unit and is compliant with MIL-810G standards for drop and vibration resistance.
Alternative custom defined ground control units can be provided on request. The ground control unit runs a web interface to allow the user to easily configure the data acquisition and the isotopic analysis.

The GUI of the software is a web interface reachable by a common browser. No apps or software installation is needed. Security level of the web interface can
be configured by the user to avoid unauthorized setting changes. The web interface shows the real time counting rate of the scintillator, the real time ambient dose equivalent rate, and the live spectrum by the scintillator is available on the dashboard. Counting and dosimetry trend of the last ten minutes are displayed in flow chart to help the user in the search of radiological dispersal device. All measurements are georeferenced, and it is possible to display trend of the bcount rate and set the alarms in the provided web interface. The GAMON-Drone integrates a GPS sensor in the surface unit to provide georeferenced display of the measured quantities. Values are presented in a dynamic map both in real time acquisition and in the reports that are automatically generated.