Some aspects of the use of intelligent systems engineering in the design of airport security programmes

The author indicates specific areas of airport security and security equipment where intelligent systems engineering (ISE) has greatly enhanced the equipment capability. The basic features of several different technologies for explosive and narcotics detection which are available in commercial devices, from the viewpoint of sensitivity, selectivity, response time, complexity, cost and health hazards, are listed. The applications of ISE to ion mobility spectrometry and chemical analysis; and to an X-ray analysis are discussed