PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCANNING IN MUON TOMOGRAPHY INSPECTION

摘要

Techniques and systems for using cosmic ray-produced muons to inspect objects based on an initial scanning of all objects and an additional scanning of objects that are determined by the initial scanning to potentially include one or more suspect regions. In one implementation, a system can include a primary scanner for performing the initial or primary scanning and a smaller secondary scanner for the additional or secondary scanning to provide efficient and accurate inspection of objects while maintaining a desired throughput of the inspection. In another implementation, a single scanner can be used to perform both the initial scanning and the additional scanning while maintaining a sufficient throughput of a line of objects under inspection.

主权项

1. A method for inspecting objects based on muon tomography using cosmic ray-produced muons, comprising:
operating a first muon tomography scanner that includes position sensitive charged particle detectors to perform an imaging scan of an object under inspection for a first imaging duration to obtain a first muon tomography image of the entire object; processing the first muon tomography image of the entire object to obtain information inside the object; generating a clearance signal when the processing of the first muon tomography image reveals no suspect region inside the object to set the first muon tomography scanner ready for receiving a next object for inspection; when the processing of the first muon tomography image reveals one or more suspect regions inside the object, removing the object from the first muon tomography scanner to place the object in a second, separate muon tomography scanner to perform an imaging scan of the object for a second imaging duration longer than the first imaging duration to obtain a second muon tomography image of only each suspect region of the object without imaging the entire object, wherein the second muon tomography scanner is configured to have a smaller imaging area covered by the position sensitive charged particle detectors to obtain an image of only a portion of the object; and while the second muon tomography scanner is being operated to further inspect the object with the one or more suspect regions, operating the first muon tomography scanner to receive a next object to inspect.