Haptic guided UAV for detection of radiation sources in outdoor environments

This work proposes a haptic teleoperation system of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aimed at localizing radiation sources in outdoor environments. Radiation sources are localized and identified by equipping the UAV with a CdZnTe-based custom X-ray detector providing light, compact, and low power operation. The UAV is guided in direct sight by the operator. The system allows exploration of potentially dangerous areas without a close exposure of the human operator. The operator is able to provide motion commands to the UAV while receiving force feedback from a 3DOF haptic interface. Force feedback provides an attractive basin around the location of the most intense detected radiation. Preliminary experiments have been conducted to test the elements of the system.