{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,4]],"date-time":"2025-05-04T14:41:48Z","timestamp":1746369708846,"version":"3.37.3"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,9]],"date-time":"2018-05-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1525824000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Key R&D Program of China","award":["2016YFC0200500"]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["No. 41701552"],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Science and Technology Project of Guangzhou, China","award":["No. 201803030032"]},{"name":"Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau","award":["No. 2015-7"]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"In recent years, many radioactive sources have been lost or stolen during use or transportation. When the radioactive source is lost or stolen, it is challenging but imperative to quickly locate the source before it causes damage. Nowadays, source search based on fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can significantly improve search efficiency, but this approach has higher requirements for the activity of the uncontrolled radioactive source and the take-off sites. The aim of this study was to design and demonstrate a platform that uses low-cost multi-rotor UAVs to automatically and efficiently search for uncontrolled radioactive sources even with lower activity. The hardware of this platform consists of a multi-rotor UAV, radiation detection sensor, main control module, gimbal and camera, and ground control station. In the search process, the ground control station and UAV communicate wirelessly in real time. To accommodate different search scenarios, the study proposed three search algorithms with a theoretical comparison. Then, field experiments based on the traversal search algorithm showed that the search system based on multi-rotor UAVs could effectively and accurately conduct contour mapping of a region and locate the radioactive source with an error of 0.32 m. The platform and algorithms enable accurate and efficient searching of radioactive sources, providing an innovative demonstration of future environmental risk assessment and management.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10050728","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,10]],"date-time":"2018-05-10T07:48:27Z","timestamp":1525938507000},"page":"728","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":34,"title":["Use of Multi-Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Radioactive Source Search"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6238-698X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bai","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems Applications, State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China"}]},{"given":"Yi","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems Applications, State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China"},{"name":"School of Public Economics and Administration, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200240, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4147-175X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhanyong","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems Applications, State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China"},{"name":"School of Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China"}]},{"given":"Chao","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems Applications, State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China"}]},{"given":"Zhong-Ren","family":"Peng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems Applications, State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China"},{"name":"China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China"},{"name":"International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design, School of Landscape Architecture and Planning, College of Design, Construction, and Planning, University of Florida, P.O. Box 115706, Gainesville, FL 32611-5706, USA"}]},{"given":"Lixin","family":"Ge","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanghai Institute for Supervision over Radio-environment, Shanghai 200065, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103","DOI":"10.1016\/S0969-8043(02)00222-1","article-title":"Search for lost or orphan radioactive sources based on NaI gamma spectrometry","volume":"58","author":"Aage","year":"2003","journal-title":"Appl. Radiat. Isot."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"685","DOI":"10.1016\/j.nima.2009.06.001","article-title":"The use of difference spectra with a filtered rolling average background in mobile gamma spectrometry measurements","volume":"607","author":"Cresswell","year":"2009","journal-title":"Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A Accel. Spectrom. Detect. Assoc. 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