ICALEPCS 2009
WEP027
System Integration Effort on MagViz a Liquid Explosive Detection Device
J.F.Power, J.O.Hill, M.Pieck* (LANL)
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) technologists have adapted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology from medical devices to create MagViz, a new diagnostic and imaging device distinguishing potential-threat liquids from the harmless substances that the public might take onboard an aircraft. The MagViz system is a new ultra-low-field MRI approach using (SQUIDs) Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices for data acquisition. Linked with a computer database, MagViz reliably identifies some 50 liquids from the chemical fingerprints of their dynamic response to polarization stimulus wavefoms. The underlying technology for MagViz has been developed for an experimental laboratory environment. A controls team took the individually developed, highly incoherant, multi-platform collection of hardware and software applications, and integrated them into a coherant system. This paper will describe the integration effort, the problems faced, and the lessons learned when integrating a large number of hetterogenous systems; I.e. polarization stiumulus waveform generation system, SQUID control system, conveyer belt, camera image acquisition, data analysis library, and user interface.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. LA-UR- 09-02350