Statistical Approach to Radioactive Target Detection and Location via Wireless Sensor Networks

—The detection of materials or devices for nuclear or radiological weapons of mass destruction is fundamentally important to national safety and security, and detection technologies are necessary both to nd and to verify the location of those materials or devices. To ful ll this task, this paper presents a statistical approach to the detection and location of radioactive target via wireless sensor networks. The statistical approach includes a hypotheses test of the existence and the point or interval estimation of the location of the target. Theoretical and empirical properties have been studied. The result showed that the proposed approach was ef cient and effective in the detection and location of radioactive target. Keywords–asymptotical distribution; likelihood ratio test; maximum likelihood estimates; signal plus background model; radiation and radioactive materials; wireless sensor network.