Screening and detection of explosives is a major challenge faced with the increasing threat to social peace. At present, dog squads are the only best solution to this issue, but there are limitation due to their shorter working life, difficulty in training and maintaining the canines, the inability to function in difficult terrains and using them without their handlers. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop an indigenous electronic nose capable of replacing the canines.
In this direction, National Center of Excellence in Technology for Internal Security (NCETIS) http://ncetis.iitb.ac.in/ncetishandheld-explosive-detector at IIT Bombay and Bigtec Labs www.bigteclabs.com at Bangalore have developed an e-nose called BEAGLEZ to detect various kinds of military as well as commercial explosives. It is based on Amplified Fluorescent Polymers (AFP).
The use of BEAGLEZ is as simple as Swipe, Scan and Detect. BEAGLEZ is the first indigenously designed and produced e-nose for explosive detection and is ready for any field challenges.
Some of the salient features of BEAGLEZ include:- Light weight and portable.
- Easy replacement of the sensing element without exposing the optical parts.
- No contamination and hence less downtime.
- Less frequent servicing of the optical parts as they are not exposed to sampled air.
- The software is available in English and Hindi.
- The device does not require any special technical skill to operate.
- BEAGLEZ can detect commercial as well as homemade explosives like C4, TNT, PETN, Semtex, RDX among other chemicals.
- This user-friendly device does not require any additional accessories and has no radio-active source.
It is the first step in making India Atmanirbhar in this technology domain.