DARPA conducts sensor testing in Indianapolis

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) SIGMA+ program conducted a test of advanced chemical and biological sensing systems in the Indianapolis area this past August.

DARPA collected more than 250 hours of daily life background atmospheric data in the city that helped train algorithms to better detect chemical and biological threats. This was the first time in the program the advanced laboratory grade instruments for chemical and biological sensing were successfully deployed as mobile sensors.

“Spending a week gathering real-world background data from a major Midwestern metropolitan region was extremely valuable as we further develop our SIGMA+ sensors and networks to provide city and regional-scale coverage for chem and biothreat detection,” Mark Wrobel, program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office, said. “Collecting chemical and biological environment data provided an enhanced understanding of the urban environment and is helping us make refinements of the threat-detection algorithms to minimize false positives and false negatives.”

Also, DARPA researchers evaluated the sensors’ performance in detecting benign controlled chemical releases that could be representative of threat agent production processes. Five safe chemicals were released and tracked by the sensor platforms during the week-long exercise, including acetone, which has benign industrial and business uses but can also be used for nefarious purposes.

“We tested the ability of the sensors to distinguish between normal background chemical environment and small traces of specific chemicals such as acetone,” Wrobel said. “If a chemical sensor makes an acetone hit near a nail salon, the SIGMA+ data analytics can help authorities make a determination that it’s probably a benign use of the chemical. But if an anomalous concentration of acetone is picked up at a location with no logical connection to the chemical, it could indicate something worth investigating, since acetone is also a precursor ingredient for some types of explosives.”

Wrobel thanked the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for their support during this testing process.

“We recognize the importance of staying a step ahead of our adversaries and to continue to develop the best tools possible for our warfighters and strategic partners,” Sgt. Robert Brown, counter-weapons of mass destruction (WMD/CBRNE) program manager in the Homeland Security Bureau of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, said.