Spartan Software Suite
Spartan is an internally developed collection of software solutions developed as the operational software for the SRA SS-Series systems. The SS-series is used primarily to collect spectra while scanning over a surface, but can also be used for static tripod measurements. Typical uses include open land surveys or material surveys on a conveyor belt.
A radiation monitoring system requires effective integration of five elements in order to undertake a survey mission:
- Radiation sensors
- Location and other supporting sensors
- A delivery platform (vechicle, conveyor, tripod, etc)
- A data acquisition system
- A data management system
Spartan is the software that runs the data acquisition element. Data is recorded in fixed time intervals or in fixed distance intervals.
Spartan is composed of 4 global modules: and input signal module, GUI module, real-time alarms module and a data recorder module. Spartan has bi-directional communication with Spartan Remote and Spartan Dashboard. The Spartan Remote runs on a PocketPC allowing limited views of the data and starting and stopping of recorded data. Spartan Dashboard is used to chart CFDs and waterfall plots in real-time.
The input module connects external devices to Spartan and includes:
- 4 each NaI spectrometers
- 1 each wheel encoder to sense distance traveled, speed and direction (forward or reverse)
- 4 each general purpose pulse input counters. Detectors previously used include plastic gamma detectors, Xenon gamma detectors, air monitors, and radon monitors
- 12 each single channel analyzers
- 1 each scale for measureing weight on a conveyor
- 1 each GPS
- 1 each electronic compass
- 5 each temperature probes
- 1 each depth switches
- 1 each fill gauge
- 1 each module for controlling a survey conveyor
- 1 each module for controlling a sorting device when used on a conveyor system
The GUI module allows the survey technician to setup and configure the operational software. Different GUIs are displayed depending on survey mode: open land or conveyor. The software is designed to operate with touch panels will large graphical area buttons. Twenty percent of the GUI is geared toward helping the survey technician maintain a constant speed. Alarm windows show details for each alarm type with alarms optionally spoken by the compter. Survey notes may be recorded via the Voice Notes feature that are tagged to the recorded data files. Quality control charts are automatically generated when the SRC function is invoked. Previously logged raw spectra file may be compared by count or count rate via a graphical chart or a residual chart. Full control over the spectra alignment is possible with HV, gain and zero controls. Automatic computer control of the zero and gain control is also possible allowing the system to keep the specra aligned during a recording session. The fill gauge is a real-time correction sensor used in conveyor surveys when the material varies with fill height and fill compaction.
The net and gross spectra alarms may have one or more of the following filter types: single point, moving average, point source, projected and sum. NaI net spectra alarms may be set on any user definable region of interest as well as on net counts using IAEA background subtraction techniques. NaI gross spectra alarms have an additional alarm type based on the residuals between the last x spectra average and the current spectra. Projected alarms are used in conveyor surveys to limit a pile of material to a desired mean. For conveyor surveys a fed alarm indicates the pile average will be exceeded if the same material is continuously fed. The real-time alarm module monitors the input sensors against predetermined setpoints. The setpoints may be automatically set by using a pre-recorded background file with the survey technician entering a sigma level. The alarms are shown on the GUI, in the recorded data and optionally on external lights.
The data recorder module logs all the raw spectra data, auxiliary input sensors and derived data values. For open land surveys the raw spectra is fed to SIMS for spatially graphing the net data.
