Integration of chemical and radiological sensors in a tactical network

The Chemical and Radiological (CR) sensors in the Norwegian Armed Forces today are stand-alone units giving alarms locally to the personnel in close proximity to the sensor. Other troops are alerted through the chain of command, but the information may be unnecessarily delayed or distorted. Networking the sensors will enable rapid and consistent dissemination of warnings to other units operating in the same area. In addition, if responses from several sensors are fused and sent to a decision support tool, it is easier to discover false alarms and give recommendations with a higher degree of confidence. This report describes how CR sensors could be connected and the information fused in order to obtain a better operational picture of CR events which may take place. A simple detection algorithm is proposed to fuse information from several identical personal chemical sensors. The fusion of information from sensors using different detection principles will provide more accurate information than using sensors with only one detection principle. One use case is where information from multiple sensors could be pushed into a geographical information system (GIS), to allow the leader of a search-team to get an overview of the search area in near real-time. Different sensor networks could be used for different purposes. Personal CR sensors require less communication resources, whereas specialized instruments require higher transmission capacity and possibly dedicated communication resources to an off-site laboratory for expert assistance. Existing communication networks are recommended for sensor communication, as long as the sensors are either fitted on soldiers or mounted on vehicles. On the other hand, if sensors are to be placed at a distance from existing radios, they will have to be equipped with their own means of communication. It is recommended that a computerized system to store and handle the raw data or consolidated data should be installed in order to be able to retrieve the data at a later stage. It is also important to take networking into account when procuring new sensor systems. For some of the existing sensors, new communication modules need to be purchased.