Independent sensor networks

The concept of networks of distributed sensors is a popular topic of research. Currently, many systems focus on environmental monitoring applications. Homeland security and the potential for nuclear weapons or dirty bombs has necessitated another type of environmental monitoring, that for radioisotopes. Select traffic points in the United States may be monitored for illicit isotopes by commercially available portal monitoring systems. This article discusses the research efforts at Los Alamos National Laboratory on the development of heterogeneous networks of small, low-power, easily concealed nodes and larger, more compute-capable nodes for in-situ data processing. These networks must be able to reconfigure themselves independently based on the data being collected across a number of sensor types in real time. An application pertinent to current national and global security issues to demonstrate the relevant concepts has been selected. The Los Alamos National Laboratory is developing methods of guarding against a potential terrorist attack using a simple radiological dispersal device (RDD).