The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is seeking solutions to rapidly identify areas of CBRN surface contamination in order to segregate equipment for processing, focus cleaning efforts on contaminated areas, and verify completeness of decontamination.
Previous R&D efforts have developed decontamination assurance solutions that provide a colorimetric indication of the areas of chemical warfare agent contamination. An approach for automating and accelerating this process is sought to reduce overall logistical demand for decontamination.
See also: Who Got Biodefense Funding from DTRA This Year?
The effort is focused on optical systems with the following characteristics:
- Work in conjunction with a contamination indication/ decon assurance spray to use visible and/or hyperspectral imaging to find contaminated areas
- Work on complex 3-dimensional surfaces
- Digitally map the contamination for later reference and retrieval
- Scan an armored vehicle in less than 10 minutes.
- Detect and map all residuals above threshold skin-contact hazards of chemical warfare agents such as HD, GD and VX.
- Exclude false readings from background and other environmental contaminants.
Further details are available via Solicitation Number: RFICBTCM. The RFI deadline is January 20, 2016.
