Drones in docks and port areas to inspect ships and containers for radioactive material

In ports, containers are routinely inspected to detect illicit transport of nuclear material, due to, for instance, criminal activities or improper disposal of radioactive sources. Current inspection methods include sampling checks or passing the containers through a sensorized portal on the dock: all this can delay port activities and expose operators to danger. The ROSSINI project aims to reduce risk and promote early detections through unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones). Drones can deploy detectors close to ships close to the port, for initial screening. The system autonomously finds the containers using visual data. The drone path has to be optimized, given the battery constraints and the large number of containers on a ship. Our current work is to verify the project's feasibility, performing tests with radiation sensors mounted on a drone approaching radiation sources of known characteristics. The drone position and the radiation levels are measured in real time, to see how the distance and any material (such as the metal sheets of which containers are built) between the source and the sensor influence the results. In the early tests we present here, we verified that a standard drone can carry the sensors we designed, and that the sensors are not disturbed by the flight conditions.