C-SALS - Semi-autonomous chemical air detection system

The United Nation Office of Counter-Terrorism has observed an increasing frequency of terrorist attacks on so-called "soft targets" such as urban centres. Attacks using weapons of mass destruction (WMD) such as chemical (warfare) agents are of particular concern, as high casualty numbers are likely. In order to be able to react quickly and in a targeted manner in the event of an emergency, and thus to minimize the damage among the population, flexible and powerful reconnaissance systems are needed. Available airborne chemical detection systems are not designed for this type of complex and time-critical mission and have limited sensor capacity and data analysis capabilities.

C-SALS (2021-2023) will develop a flexible, semi-autonomous UAV-based reconnaissance system designed to support forces in tactical mission planning and execution by generating a 3D situation picture. An extensively equipped sensor suite consisting of onboard gas sensors, a powerful stand-off detector, (lowerable) sampling devices and a high-precision laser scanner on a heavy-duty UAV suitable for military missions will be used for chemical air detection. The main advantages envisioned are that (i) both heavy and light gas scenarios can be addressed, (ii) the 3D environment model provides direct indications of potentially hazardous locations and assists in flight manoeuvres, (iii) gas samples can be taken nearly free of downwash and hove effects with sorbent tubes, and (iv) contamination of expensive specialized equipment is actively counteracted. In C-SALS, basic procedures and methods for UAV-based airborne sensing with the goal of gas detection, identification, and concentration determination will thus be developed to TRL 3 to TRL 5. Vienna Scientific Instruments contributes its knowledge on developing and building robust automatic air sampling systems for UAV deployment to the project consortium.

Project coordination: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH

Research partners:

• SEC Technologies, s.r.o.
• Vienna Scientific Instruments GmbH
• CBRN Protection GmbH
• RIEGL Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
• Universität für Weiterbildung Krems
• Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung
• Schiebel Elektronische Geräte GmbH
• Rosenbauer International AG

The C-SALS project and our sorbent tube sampler on the Schiebel Camcopter was featured in an article in the daily newspaper "Die Presse" (Austria) on 26.11.2023, "Der unsichtbaren Gefahr auf der Spur" which can be translated as"On the trail of the invisible danger" https://www.diepresse.com/17857147/der-unsichtbaren-gefahr-auf-der-spur (full text only after login). See more images on our C-SALS blog article. 

C-SALS is/has been funded by the Austrian defense research programme FORTE of the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF).

https://www.forte-bmf.at/gefoerderte-projekte/detail/c-sals