Today, over 15,000 Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) analyzers are employed at worldwide security checkpoints to detect explosives and illicit drugs. Current portal IMS instruments and other electronic nose technologies detect explosives and drugs by analyzing samples containing the headspace air and loose particles residing on a surface. Canines can outperform these systems at sampling and detecting the low vapor pressure explosives and drugs, such as RDX, PETN, cocaine, and MDMA, because these biological detectors target the volatile signature compounds available in the headspace rather than the non-volatile parent compounds of explosives and drugs. In this dissertation research volatile signature compounds available in the headspace over explosive and drug samples were detected using SPME as a headspace sampling tool coupled to an IMS analyzer. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) technique was developed to optimize the operating conditions of a commercial IMS (GE Itemizer 2), leading to the successful detection of plastic explosives (Detasheet, Semtex H, and C-4) and illicit drugs (cocaine, MDMA, and marijuana). Short sampling times (between 10 sec to 5 min) were adequate to extract and preconcentrate sufficient analytes (> 20 ng) representing the volatile signatures in the headspace of a 15 mL glass vial or a quart-sized can containing ≤ 1 g of the bulk explosive or drug. Furthermore, a research grade IMS with flexibility for changing operating conditions and physical configurations was designed and fabricated to accommodate future research into different analytes or physical configurations. The design and construction of the FIU-IMS were facilitated by computer modeling and simulation of ion’s behavior within an IMS. The simulation method developed uses SIMION/SDS and was evaluated with experimental data collected using a commercial IMS (PCP Phemto Chem 110). The FIU-IMS instrument has comparable performance to the GE Itemizer 2 (average resolving power of 14, resolution of 3 between two drugs and two explosives, and LODs range from 0.7 to 9 ng). The results from this dissertation further advance the concept of targeting volatile components to presumptively detect the presence of concealed bulk explosives and drugs by SPME-IMS, and the new FIU-IMS provides a flexible platform for future IMS research projects.

Les techniques d’optimisation non-lisse permettent de résoudre des problèmes difficiles de l’ingénieur automaticien qui étaient inaccessibles avec les techniques classiques. Il s’agit en particulier de problèmes de commande ou de filtrage impliquant de multiples modèles ou faisant intervenir des contraintes de structure pour la réduction des couts et de la complexité. Il en résulte que ces techniques sont plus à même de fournir des solutions réalistes dans des problématiques pratiques difficiles. Les industriels européens de l’aéronautique et de l’espace ont récemment porté un intérêt tout particulier à ces nouvelles techniques. Ces dernières font parfois partie du "process" industriel (THALES, AIRBUS DS Satellite, DASSAULT A) ou sont utilisées dans les bureaux d’étude: (SAGEM, AIRBUS Transport). Des études sont également en cours comme celle concernant le pilotage atmosphérique des futurs lanceurs tels d’Ariane VI. L’objectif de cette thèse concerne l'exploration, la spécialisation et le développement des techniques et outils de l'optimisation non-lisse pour des problématiques d'ingénierie non résolues de façon satisfaisante - incertitudes de différente nature - optimisation de l'observabilité et de la contrôlabilité - conception simultanée système et commande Il s’agit aussi d’évaluer le potentiel de ces techniques par rapport à l’existant avec comme domaines applicatifs l’aéronautique, le spatial ou les systèmes de puissance de grande dimension qui fournissent un cadre d’étude particulièrement exigeant. / Non-smooth optimization techniques help solving difficult engineering problems that would be unsolvable otherwise. Among them, control problems with multiple models or with constraints regarding the structure of the controller. The thesis objectives consist in the exploitation, specialization and development of non smooth optmization techniques and tools for solving engineering problems that are not satisfactorily solved to the present.

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