Design and implementation of a radiation portal monitor Multi-Lane Simulator

Deploying radiation portal monitors (RPMs) at U.S. ports of entry requires an understanding of an RPM system's performance at sites with a large number of RPMs. This paper describes an RPM Multi-Lane Simulator that has been designed and implemented to simulate vehicle traffic at these sites. The Simulator's flexible architecture simulates vehicle traffic with its associated radiation profiles and emulates each RPM's radiation sensor panels. The RPM vendor's embedded control computer firmware and supervisory software are left unchanged, thereby enabling hardware-in-the-loop testing of RPM system performance in configurations that exceed what is experienced in the field. The Simulator has proven to be a valuable and cost effective performance testing tool used by both Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and U.S. Customs and Border Protection systems integration and testing staff.