A Survey on the Present State-of-the-Art of Explosives, Detection Methods and Automatic Explosive Detection using Wireless Sensor Network

Though the There is ever increasing evidence of increased terrorist activities that spread entire world. In the wake of modern technologies and diversified threats, it is indispensable to comprehend, detect and prevent with reliable countermeasures. In this context detection of explosives is an active research area. Towards this end many detection systems came into existence. The government agencies in various countries are equipped with the devices that can detect explosives. However, often they are bulky in nature and they are publicly visible and expensive. Therefore it is not feasible to use them in the present condition in public places such as railway stations, airports, bus stations and so on. Manual intervention is another problem in the traditional systems. Therefore there is immediate need for the detection of explosives to be incorporated in a mobile network like Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Since the nodes of WSN can be deployed hidden from public view, such network is an ideal candidate to have real time and automated detection of explosives. The realization of such networks can pave the way for installation at public domains to safeguard lives and property of citizens. Towards this end we review the literature on the present state-of-the-art of explosives, their characterization, detection methods including the usage of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for automatic and real time explosive detection. This paper gives insights into different insights into explosives and detection methods that can help in further research towards realizing a fool proof system for explosive detection.