Aerial detection of contamination with the use of unmanned vehicles – development prospects

Currently, the territory of the Republic of Poland faces a growing threat of contamination with its sources in catastrophes and technical failures in industrial plants (including nuclear power plants) and uncontrolled release of high-toxic chemicals during transport and, which cannot be excluded, terrorism. The increased level of threat resulting from, among others, those factors caused that the National Contamination Detection and Alerting Systems (KSWiA) with the Contamination Detection System of the Polish Armed Forces as the system coordinator was established in the Republic of Poland in 2006. This paper presents the outline of the aerial system of contamination detection, mainly its technical elements, based on the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) carrying on board basic and special-purpose equipment. The elementary way of operating the system while performing tasks as well as requirements for its maintenance and handling have been proposed. Introduction of UAV systems would greatly increase the effectiveness of the Contamination Detection System of the Polish Armed Forces, but also other civilian functional subsystems of KSWSiA. There are many advantages to using them, such as no need to expose personnel to contamination and an enemy impact, high mobility, maneuverability and the capability to operate under difficult terrain conditions.