Sensing odour sources in indoor environments without a constant airflow by a mobile robot

Abstract

This paper describes the assembly of a mobile odour sensing system and investigates its practical operation in an indoor environment without a constant airflow. Lacking a constant airflow leads to a problem which cannot be neglected in real world applications. The response of the metal oxide gas sensors used is dominated by air turbulence rather than concentration differences. We show that this problem can be overcome by driving the robot with a constant speed, thus adding an extra constant airflow relative to the gas sensors location. If the robot's speed is not too low the system described proved to be well suited to detect even weak odour sources. Since driving with constant speed is an indispensable condition to perform the basic tasks of a mobile odour sensing system, a new localization strategy is proposed, which takes this into account.