The Nevada National Security Sites (NNSS) partnered with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and four other National Laboratories to earn a prestigious R&D 100 Award for a groundbreaking facility monitoring system known as Persistent DynAMICS. Recognized as one of the top technological innovations of the year, the project provides a smarter, more efficient way to monitor high-value facilities and safeguard critical assets in real time.
Developed by LANL in collaboration with NNSS, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories, Persistent DynAMICS addresses a common challenge in large-scale security monitoring: processing massive amounts of continuous data without overwhelming systems or operators. Instead of relying on constant, exhaustive data collection, Persistent DynAMICS adds an intelligent layer of decision-making directly onto existing sensor networks. This enables the system to track real-time activity, improve detection sensitivity, and significantly reduce false alarms.
A key component of this technology is the Edge-processing Monitoring Unit (EMU), developed with contributions from NNSS’ Special Technologies Laboratory. The EMU connects commercial, off-the-shelf sensors—such as cameras, vibration sensors, directional microphones, and accelerometers—with compact processing modules. This setup analyzes visual, acoustic, and physical data right where it is collected, using custom machine learning algorithms to evaluate events like vehicle movement, cooling tower fan speeds, and steam plumes. By performing data analysis at the edge rather than sending raw streams back to a central server, the platform delivers rapid, actionable insights and is even capable of tasking nearby sensors or different sensing modalities to confirm the event and focus data collection where it is needed.
Although it was developed for nuclear nonproliferation applications, the team notes that this framework could also support other monitoring needs, including those for critical infrastructure.
Reflecting on the project, NNSS scientist Shreyas Kamath noted, “Working on the Persistent DynAMICS venture has been an incredibly exciting and rewarding experience for our team at STL. We enjoyed collaborating with LANL and our sister labs to tackle some of the most challenging research problems in the nonproliferation space and are honored to receive recognition for our work.”
Congratulations to the multi-lab team on this prestigious win!