  This work reports numerical simulations and statistical tests carried out to
study the performance of a prototype imaging setup to be developed for material
discrimination using Muon Scattering Tomography (MST). The reconstructed images
have been processed with a Pattern Recognition Method (PRM) to discriminate the
low-Z and high-Z materials. The same method has been applied to examine the
performance of the setup in recognizing the shape of the test objects. Design
parameters of the setup, such as area of the muon detectors, their physical
placement, along with their spatial resolution, etc. have been discussed. To
evaluate the efficacy of the newly proposed PRM, the results have been compared
to another technique based on cluster finding.
