The explosive scanning devices allocation problem for airport security systems

This dissertation investigates passenger screening at the airport. Before boarding an aircraft, passengers are divided into many classes by a passenger prescreening system according to their perceived risk levels. Subsequently, a passenger is screened by one or more procedures. This dissertation introduces an explosive scanning device allocation model for each group of passengers. The optimization model for multiple-airport security systems is developed, where the focus is on carry-on baggage screening. The objective of the model is to assign both the type and number of devices to each group so that the total security is maximized subject to budget, resource and throughput constraints. This research proves that the model is NP-hard, and introduces heuristics to obtain feasible solutions. Numerical results of the example are provided.