This Drone Monitors Radiation So Humans Don't Have To

When it comes to monitoring radiation levels during a nuclear disaster, who's better suited: a fleshy, radiation-averse human, or a drone? Naturally, it's the latter; the great advantage drones have over humans—aside from the whole flying thing, of course—is that it's not such a big loss if one dies.

Take Fukushima as an example. While elderly volunteers, underpaid "liquidators," and even the homeless have all taken part in cleanup efforts, robots have been lacking. And although a drone could hardly do a nuclear engineer's job, having all-hovering eyes constantly monitoring the site for radiation leakage would be hugely valuable as the plant's reactors continue their slow march towards stabilization.

A team at the University of Bristol has a solution in what it calls the Advanced Airborne Radiation Monitoring (AARM) system. The AARM system consists of a hexacopter mounted with a camera, a small gamma spectrometer, and other sensing equipment that allows users to assess the intensity of potential radiation leaks by flying right near the source. An aerial survey would provide a more comprehensive perspective for regular monitoring, and if a disaster were to occur, it wouldn't require that a human walk into potential hot zones to get data on the scope of a leak.

According to Dr. James MacFarlane, who's leading the Bristol team, the AARM system has been under development for about 18 months. "In this time we have taken it from a conversation which occurred in the pub, through initial prototyping to where we are now; a fully functional commercial prototype stage," he said in an email.

I asked MacFarlane how much of the system is based on off-the-shelf parts, and he said the he couldn't comment because his team is still formulating its business plan. "What I will say is that we expect them to be significantly cheaper than current solutions for radiation mapping," he wrote.

Initial testing was conducted at a former uranium mining site in Romania, and the aerial radiation survey results compared favorably to those conducted via traditional methods. With that proof of concept, the team hopes to begin testing back in the UK.

"In fact the initial trials where performed over Halloween, in the Transylvanian Alps with a full moon and wolves howling. I kid you not!" MacFarlane wrote. "But from these initial trials we proved the concept and attracted further funding to develop the system to what it is today. Recently we have focused our trials on areas of natural occurring radiation anomalies in Cornwall, UK."

That initial success has culminated with MacFarlane being announced the joint winner of the ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Award, which comes with a £15,000 ($24,750) fund for further development, along with a £5,000 personal award, which will help bring the AARM system to market. "It has be is excellent to have the opportunity recognised by such a high calibre institution," MacFarlane said. "I look forward to all the support that they have pledged and their valuable input into this project."

The radiation monitoring system is in the beginning stages of going commercial. According to MacFarlane, the new company, called ImiTec, will focus its initial efforts in the UK, which is currently in the process of transitioning from aging nuclear plants to next-generation ones.

"We hope to roll out the system over the next six months into several nuclear sites in the UK for routine monitoring," he said. "We are currently in conversations with several of the major nuclear Site Licence Companies in the UK who have a real and pressing need for this technology."

Eventually, the goal is to have radiation monitoring systems flying regularly over as many nuclear sites as possible,  helping conduct regular surveys of radiation emissions. "Over the next six months we hope to have a fully fledged start up company with these systems actively working on nuclear sites," MacFarlane said. "We look forward to seeing this technology progress out of the lab and be of real benefit in the world."