Restricted Research - Award List, Note/Discussion Page
Fiscal Year: 2023
115 University of North Texas (142003)
Principal Investigator: Verbeck IV,Guido Fridolin
Total Amount of Contract, Award, or Gift (Annual before 2011): $ 255,681
Exceeds $250,000 (Is it flagged?): Yes
Start and End Dates: 5/3/22 - 8/4/23
Restricted Research: YES
Academic Discipline: Chemistry
Department, Center, School, or Institute: College of Science
Title of Contract, Award, or Gift: STTR Phase 2 20.C ACT Airborne Contaminant Trap
Name of Granting or Contracting Agency/Entity:
RIIS Technology, LLC
CFDA Link: DOD
12.800
Program Title:
none
CFDA Linked: Air Force Defense Research Sciences Program
Note:
1.1 Technical Summary of the Non-Defense Commercial Solution Homeland and base security require the ability for WMD-CST, HAZMAT, and AF Emergency Management teams to detect, analyze, and monitor chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear events (CBRN). Today, these first responders suit up in protective gear and walk with their sensors, directly into gaseous plumes in order to collect and analyze samples of these hazardous materials, putting their lives in immediate danger. This significantly limits their ability to monitor multiple concurrent events as well as their ability to collect sufficient data to optimize real-time knowledge of the true behavior of these chemical plumes as they move through the air. Because a person is currently required to physically take the samples, it may take four to six hours to have a team in place ready to take samples. With that, the number of samples those individuals can collect are limited based on the mobility of the person and equipment. The human can only collect samples at ground level (a two dimensional plane) although the hazardous plane is moving in three dimensions, significantly limiting the teams understanding of the full extent of the problem. Typical drone-based sensors are limited to a maximum of six or seven chemical-specific sensors based on the weight, although full analysis requires the ability to have a much broader spectrum of potential chemicals—up to 80,000 potential molecular markers. The alternative would be to place a mass spectrometer on a drone; however, doing so would significantly hamper the weight of the craft, reducing flight time and increasing the probability of crashing the craft. With that risk comes the associated cost—a drone with an integrated mass spectrometer could cost upwards of $1M including the craft, instrumentation, and cost to maintain it. Additionally, it would not be practical to have those types of crafts available in-mass, distributed and accessible to first responders in a way that allowed them to collect and analyze samples in a timely manner, let alone take the risk associated with craft loss and replacement costs. Riis Technology has the solution.
Discussion: No discussion notes