Relying on an electronic nose for odor localization

In this work we integrate an electronic nose with a mobile robot for the purpose of detecting odor leaks in a 1-dimensional environment. The robot relies on two mechanisms, the navigational algorithms to manoeuver in the environment and its sensing mechanism to adequately represent odors and their intensities. The emphasis of the proposed odor tracking strategy is placed on the cooperation between these two mechanisms particularly by allowing the sensor dynamics to guide the robot. We then obtain a graphical representation of the distribution of odour as the robot moves in a path. The results presented were designed and tested considering a specific application, however, the odor tracking strategy may offer a basis for odor source localization in more complex environments.

[1]  Ron Goodman,et al.  An Autonomous Water Vapor Plume Tracking Robot Using Passive Resistive Polymer Sensors , 2000, Auton. Robots.

[2]  Nathan S. Lewis,et al.  Array-based vapor sensing using chemically sensitive, carbon black-Polymer resistors , 1996 .

[3]  J W Gardner and P N Bartlett,et al.  Electronic Noses: Principles and Applications , 1999 .

[4]  Takamichi Nakamoto,et al.  Study of autonomous mobile sensing system for localization of odor source using gas sensors and anemometric sensors , 1994 .

[5]  Andreas Zell,et al.  Sensing odour sources in indoor environments without a constant airflow by a mobile robot , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[6]  Jelle Atema,et al.  Toward the convergence: robot and lobster perspectives of tracking odors to their source in the turbulent marine environment , 1998, Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC) held jointly with IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA) Intell.

[7]  Isao Shimoyama,et al.  Synthesis of pheromone-oriented emergent behavior of a silkworm moth , 1996, Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. IROS '96.

[8]  Isao Shimoyama,et al.  Steering control of a mobile robot using insect antennae , 1995, Proceedings 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots.

[9]  Silvia Coradeschi,et al.  Odor source identification by grounding linguistic descriptions in an artificial nose , 2001, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[10]  Nathan S. Lewis,et al.  Array-based vapor sensing using chemically sensitive carbon black-polymer resistors , 1997, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[11]  Amy Loutfi,et al.  Symbolic Estimation of Food Odors using Fuzzy Techniques , 2002 .

[12]  Alessandro Saffiotti,et al.  Learning to locate an odour source with a mobile robot , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).