Implementation and Experimental Validation of the IEC 63047 Standard for Data Transfer in Radiological and Nuclear Robotic Applications

Conventionally, data from radiation detectors is integrated over time, delivering a simple dose rate or energy spectrum. The time integration over several seconds makes it hard to locate a radioactive source when either the detector or the source is moving. A novel approach is to use the detectorâs much higher internal data rate and combine it with precise time and position information. In principle, this so-called list-mode data acquisition allows innovative algorithms that can locate and identify a radioactive source much faster than in the conventional approach. IEC 63047 is a recently introduced binary standard for list-mode data collection, which is applicable to data files and streams. The standard is specified using Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1). The format supports various types of time-stamped data and can be used in a wide range of applications involving radiation detection and measurement. It may also be used to represent data from other sensors than radiation detectors and supports positioning data from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). The standard has a wide potential for CBRNE detection equipment, including robotics. To facilitate the use of the standard, an open-source solution for encoding and decoding IEC 63047 messages has been implemented and tested. In addition, a simple demonstration device was developed from off-the-shelf components. Extensive laboratory and field tests were conducted to show that the standard itself as well as the demonstration device are suitable for typical radiological and nuclear (RN) inspection and monitoring tasks. For a better use with unmanned robot systems, a software interface between IEC 63047 and the Robot Operating System (ROS) was implemented. Finally, using this ROS interface, the demonstration device was integrated into an experimental robot system and successfully tested under RN field conditions at the European Robotics Hackathon (EnRicH).