SEDUCE

Project Description

The SEDUCE Project has the goal of developing technologies for the detection of improvised explosive artifacts in public places and infrastructures. It is financed by the CDTI (Industrial Technological Development Center) within the CENIT programme. It is being carried out through a consortium of companies: Indra (consortium leader), Arquimea Ingeniería, Alfa Imaging, Autoridad Portuaria de Valencia, DAS Photonics, GATESA, ISDEFE, Metro Madrid, Multiscan Technologies and Ramem.

Along with the companies, and as observers, also AENA, ADIF and PUERTOS DEL ESTADO participate.

The consortium will be supported by universities and technological development centers for basic investigation. Among them stands out the Technical University of Madrid and the Universidad de Malaga (Indra collaborators), Inasmet-Tecnalia, the Nanophotonic Technology Center from Valencia and Universidad Carlos II de Madrid.

The main goal of SEDUCE is to generate the scientific and technological knowledge that assures the protection of the people and the public and private assets through the detection of improvised explosive artifacts in public centers and infrastructures (ports, airports, trains stations…) providing information to the official authorities for its prevention.

In order to achieve this goal, new mechanisms will be investigated for the location of improvised explosives (IEDs), all according to a group of strategic sceneries, where the terrorist menace is potentially higher due to a highest concentration of people and assets.

Indra will lead and coordinate technically the field oriented to the detection of improvised explosives. Indra participates directly in this area with the development of x-ray technologies, LIBS and Raman spectometries and radiologic detection techniques (for the so-called dirty bombs).

Collaborating Companies or Organisations

Indra's Role

Rol: Project coordinator.

Activities to carry out:

Development of sensors for the detection of explosives:

• Development of optic technologies (LIBS, Raman)
• Development of radioactivity sensors (for the detection of dirty bombs)
• Development of x-ray based technologies.

Universities and Technological Centres

Technologies used

• Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS):
  Atomic emission spectroscopy. A sample is radiated by a high energy laser, creating a plasma. When the plasma gets cold, the emissions are captured and analyzed by the spectrometer.
• Raman spectroscopy:
  Molecular spectroscopy. The laser radiation generates a transfer of energy affecting the vibrating states of the light molecules. The light disperses with different wavelengths depending on the molecular structure of the material.
• Radioactivity detection sensors:
  Based in the process that performs the detectors to transform the emissions (gamma, beta or neutrons) of the environment and the material into electric impulses through a measurement that optimizes the detection. A group of detectors can be used simultaneously. In this case it can be detected the presence of little amounts of radioactive materials, as well as bigger amounts, even though they were screened with thick shields, by carrying out periodic and continuous measurements, during small fractions of time, while the detector goes besides the material.
• X-ray technologies:
  It is the excitation of a sample by an x-ray source. This source excites the electrons of the elements that constitute the sample in a way that some of them abandon their original orbital levels. Afterwards, other electrons will occupy the free places, emitting a photon with a characteristic energy for each element. The concentration of each element is detected measuring the intensity of the energy associated with each electronic transition. Therefore, this method is useful for the detection of bomb detonators, which frequently are made of materials with a high atomic number.

More information

Financed by CDTI (Industrial Technological Development center) within the Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica 2008-2011.