The instruments incorporated in POLISMART™ system enable the users not only to perform the required measurements of the detected radiation source but also to solve the most important task of the present day: the operator of the instrument is capable to make appropriate decisions even though he does not have special knowledge in the field of radiation safety and nuclear physics and does not have the sufficient experience and skills in performing the procedures of radiation control in each specific case.

What actions should be taken if the radiation pager alarms when a subway passenger is walking by? Is this a patient who passed medical treatment with radioactive isotopes or a terrorist carrying the dirty bomb in his pocket? It is not so easy to make proper decision whether to arrest this person or let him go so the specific knowledge of the specialists in medical field is also required.

However, having POLISMART™ the proper decision can be made at site without calling for the special experts. It can be accomplished due to the capability of the instrument to operate in the DSS system and exchange of information including the video and voice one in the real time mode with national or departmental center of expert support and response in emergency situations. In the POLISMART™ system there are several DSS modes that can be used by the users depending in the conditions of the specific situation.

1. Operation according to the instructions

To make the operation of the instruments easier for the users who do not have special knowledge in the filed of radiation control the set of instructions that give the algorithm of step-by-step behavior of the user in each specific situation are being developed. This approach has two disadvantages. The first one is that the user may omit the instructions because of his ignorance or intentionally and the second is that the instructions may be described in several volumes and it is impossible or inconvenient to bring them to the site of accident.

Operation in the POLISMART™ system makes it possible to avoid two disadvantages at once. The system automatically accounts all actions taken by the user, the taken measurements and the measured values, the time the instrument was ON/OFF thus making it possible to supervise the conscientiousness and knowledge of the working personnel. It will not be necessary to bring the volumes with all instructions to each accident site, since any set of step-by-step instructions can be placed into the memory of the instrument, it will be saved in one center and sent to the instrument through communication channels if such necessity occurs.

2. Operation in interactive mode with the expert.

The field of tasks related to radiation control process is significant and it requires from a specialist having profound knowledge, which cannot be acquired within the short period of time. Partially, this gap is covered with the set of instructions and rules for the necessary actions that the user must take. From the other hand in emergency situations it is hard to describe all possible options of behavior or create the instructions that can be applied for all cases. POLISMART™ is a solution here. Due to the two-way channel for information exchange with the expert support center the user may contact the expert by voice mail, send the video information, results of measurement taken by the detectors and the expert in its turn may even control the operation of the instrument himself. This way, at any time from any place in the world in emergency situation it is possible to find the best solution using not only the skills of the operator but also the knowledge of the high professional expert team.

3. Operation with expert system

Sometimes in the emergency situation the user faces the complicated task and even the knowledge of several experts is not enough to find proper solution and appropriate actions. From the other hand, the communication with the expert can be broken due to some reasons. In this case, the user of the POLISMART™ instrument can request for support from the automatic expert system which is having integrated knowledge of experts in various fields. After the user answers all questions asked by the expert system he will get accurate recommendations what to do in each specific situation.

Independently on the selected mode of operation the system runs the automatic accounting and filing of all actions taken by the user. Based on the obtained data, the reports are returns about each situation are automatically formed thus making it possible to analyze the events, search for regularity of events, develop recommendations, specify and improve the job responsibilities.

The system also allows sending the operational information directly from the common center to the sites where the radiation control procedures are run.

The access to the DSS system is possible both in the corporative network through the wireless protocols WiFi, and in the open Internet through GPRS/GPRSII . The POLISMART™ project also provides (service on polismart.net) subscription for access to demo-version of the DSS with limited functional capabilities.