The ability to simulate a seaport environment, including illicit cargo and the sensors designed to detect such cargo, allows the evaluation of alternative detection methods in order to improve security at our nation's seaports. We describe our progress towards this goal. Specifically, we describe our modeling of threats at a particle emission level, modeling of sensors as particle detectors, modeling of the seaport dynamics (e.g, ships, cargo containers, cranes, trucks), and how the particles interact with the various structures and materials in the seaport environment as the cargo moves through the seaport. Ultimately, this simulation will serve as a testbed for the evaluation of sensor network data collection, fusion and decision making for threat detection in a seaport environment.
Allen Christiansen, Damian Johnson, Lawrence B. Ho