Systems and methods for detecting and geo-locating hazardous refuse

• US 8,384,540 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2010
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Reyes, Hector M., Graham, Donald P., Hewitt, Mary J., Crist, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Hai
• Assistant Examiner(s): NWUGO, OJIAKO K
• Application Number:
  US12/824,641
• Publication Number:
  US 20110316689A1
• Time in Patent Office: 974 Days
• Field of Search: 3405721-5729, 340 101- 105, 235375-385, 241/24.1, 241/63, 241/81, 414/21, 414/408, 414/409, 209/3.3, 209/583, 209/589
• US Class Current: 340/532
• CPC Class Codes: B65F 1/1484 relating to the adaptation of receptacles to carry identification means

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for scanning refuse (garbage, trash) from a large geographic area to detect the presence of hazardous materials in the refuse. Hazardous material may comprise CBRNE agents, components of terrorist devices, environmental pollutants and toxins and illegal drugs and may include trace particulates of such agents as well as by-products thereof. Systems and methods, according to some embodiments, may further comprise geo-locating to a small geographic area the origin of hazardous material. Accordingly, in some embodiments the disclosure provides systems and methods to geo-locate facilities or addresses where hazardous materials are generated, thereby geo-locating facilities that make terrorist devices, sources of environmental pollutants and/or sources of illegal drugs. According to some embodiments, systems and methods of the disclosure enable focusing efforts of law enforcement authorities to identify terrorists, drug activities and/or environmental offenders to small geographic areas (e.g. a street address).

Claims

1. A system for detecting hazardous material in refuse and for identifying geographic location of origin of refuse detected to have hazardous material comprising:

a plurality of trucks, each truck operable to collect refuse;

each truck having a geo-location system operable to track and store routes taken by each truck;

each truck having a device for attaching at least one tag to collected refuse, each tag operable to associate collected refuse to a respective truck;

a scanning system operable to scan collected refuse and to detect hazardous material in collected refuse;

an isolation system operable to separate and isolate refuse detected to have hazardous material; and

an identification system operable to read a tag attached to refuse detected to have hazardous material and identify a truck that collected refuse detected to have hazardous material, the identification system further having the ability to obtain a route taken by the truck that collected refuse detected to have hazardous material.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a notification system operable to notify authorities about refuse detected to have hazardous material and the route taken by the truck that collected refuse detected to have hazardous material, thereby identifying a geographic location of origin of refuse detected to have hazardous material.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein hazardous material may comprise an explosive agent, a component of an explosive device, a chemical, a chemical warfare agent, a radioactive material, a biological agent, a bio-terrorist agent, a toxic chemical, a pollutant, a solvent, a paint, a bio-hazardous material or combinations thereof.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the device for attaching at least one tag is further operable to attach a tag on each bag of refuse collected.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the tag is further operable to associate each bag of collected refuse to a respective geographic location.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the tag is further operable to associate each bag of collected refuse to a respective street address.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the tag is selected from a group consisting of a geo-location tag, an radio frequency (RF) tag, a dye, a barcode, a paint, a chemical, and combinations thereof.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the scanning system is further operable to identify hazardous material detected.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the scanning system is located at a waste management facility.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the scanning system further comprises a device to expose concealed refuse having hazardous material prior to scanning.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the scanning system may comprise a scanner comprising a spectrophotometer, an X-ray imager, a imaging system, an electrochemical systems, a surface acoustic wave sensor (SAWS), a mass sensors, an optical sensor, a Compton imager, a stand-off radiation detection system (SORDS), a photon detector, a Geiger counter, a scintillation counter, a biological detection system, a data collection module, a data processing module, a module to detect and subtract background noise, a module operable to store collected data, an identification module, an output module, an alarm module or any combinations thereof.

12. A system for detecting hazardous material in refuse and for identifying geographic location of origin of refuse detected to have hazardous material comprising:

a plurality of trucks, each truck operable to collect refuse;

each truck having a geo-location system operable to identify a plurality of addresses at which refuse is collected from by a respective truck;

each truck having a scanning system operable to scan and detect hazardous material in collected refuse; and

a communication device operable to transmit information relating to detection of hazardous material and a respective address at which the refuse detected to have hazardous material was collected up from to a data center, thereby identifying a geographic location of origin of refuse detected to have hazardous material.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising a notification system operable to notify authorities about detection of hazardous material in refuse, the notification system further operable to provide authorities the respective address at which the refuse detected to have hazardous material was collected from.

14. The system of claim 12 further comprising an isolation system operable to isolate refuse detected to have hazardous material.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the scanning system comprises one or more scanners.

16. The system of claim 12, the scanning system further operable to identify the hazardous material detected.

17. The system of claim 12, further comprising a device to expose contents of a concealed hazardous material prior to scanning.

18. A method for detecting hazardous material in refuse and for identifying a geographic location of origin of refuse detected to have hazardous material comprising:

a) tracking a route of a truck while collecting refuse to obtain a truck route information;

b) transmitting the truck route information to a route database;

c) attaching at least one tag to each portion of refuse collected by the truck;

d) scanning each portion of refuse to detect at least one hazardous material;

e) isolating a first portion of refuse detected to have a hazardous material;

f) reading a tag attached to the first portion of refuse detected to have the hazardous material to obtain tag information and isolating the first portion of refuse;

g) querying the route database with tag information and determining the route of the truck that collected the first portion of refuse;

h) correlating the route of the truck to the hazardous material detected in the first portion of refuse, thereby locating a geographic location of origin of the hazardous material and

i) continuing to isolate additional portion of refuse collected detected to have hazardous material and repeating the steps of d) through i) for each portion of refuse detected to have a hazardous material till all the refuse collected by the truck is scanned.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising notifying authorities about the first portion of refuse, the hazardous material detected and the geographic location of origin of the hazardous material.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the tracking may comprise tracking and storing data relating to stops and durations of stops of the truck.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the tracking may comprise noting a street address of each stop where the truck picks up refuse.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein attaching a tag may comprise attaching a geo-location tag, an RF tag, a dye, a mark, a stamp, a barcode, a paint, a chemical or combinations thereof to each portion of refuse collected.

23. The method of claim 18, further comprising re-scanning a first portion of refuse detected to have a hazardous material to confirm the presence of the hazardous material in the isolated first portion of refuse.

24. The method of claim 18, further comprising repeating the steps of claim a) through i) for a plurality of trucks that pick up refuse from a large geographic area, thereby scanning refuse from the large geographic area to geo-locate one or more small geographic areas of origin of hazardous material.

25. A method for detecting hazardous material in refuse and for identifying a geographic location of origin of refuse detected to have hazardous material comprising:

a) attaching at least one tag to collected refuse, each tag operable to associate tag to a respective truck;

b) tracking an address at which a truck collects refuse;

c) scanning each portion of refuse to detect at least one hazardous material as each portion of refuse is being collected;

d) isolating refuse detected to have hazardous material; and

e) transmitting data comprising positive detection of a hazardous material and the address from which the truck collected refuse having the hazardous material to a data center.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein transmitting data further comprises notifying authorities about the hazardous material detected.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

isolating a first portion of refuse detected to have a hazardous material.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

rescanning the first portion of refuse detected to have a hazardous material.