Abstract: A sensor system in which a sensor suite has a locally located field sensing unit (FSU) that converts and evaluates sensor information using sensor fusion algorithms and is thereby able to send qualitative low-bandwidth, low power usage signals to a remote command post.

Abstract: A low cost portable fiber optic fluorometer is packaged as a personal computer peripheral and is based on interchangeable modules. One embodiment of the fluorometer comprises an excitation source, a detector, a signal processor, frequency source, wavelength selector, and an optical interface. The optical interface is exclusively fiber optic-based, thereby simplifying optical alignment and reducing the cost of the fluorometer. In another embodiment, the excitation source is an inexpensive monochromatic excitation source. In this case, the monochromatic excitation source and the first wavelength selector are preferably removable and replaceable, so that the fluorometer is advantageously able to generate different excitation wavelengths and detect different emission wavelengths.