TY - GEN
T1 - Robot assisted gas tomography - Localizing methane leaks in outdoor environments
AU - Bennetts, Victor Hernandez
AU - Schaffernicht, Erik
AU - Stoyanov, Todor
AU - Lilienthal, Achim J.
AU - Trincavelli, Marco
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 IEEE.
PY - 2014/9/22
Y1 - 2014/9/22
N2 - In this paper we present an inspection robot to produce gas distribution maps and localize gas sources in large outdoor environments. The robot is equipped with a 3D laser range finder and a remote gas sensor that returns integral concentration measurements. We apply principles of tomography to create a spatial gas distribution model from integral gas concentration measurements. The gas distribution algorithm is framed as a convex optimization problem and it models the mean distribution and the fluctuations of gases. This is important since gas dispersion is not an static phenomenon and furthermore, areas of high fluctuation can be correlated with the location of an emitting source. We use a compact surface representation created from the measurements of the 3D laser range finder with a state of the art mapping algorithm to get a very accurate localization and estimation of the path of the laser beams. In addition, a conic model for the beam of the remote gas sensor is introduced. We observe a substantial improvement in the gas source localization capabilities over previous state-of-The-Art in our evaluation carried out in an open field environment.
AB - In this paper we present an inspection robot to produce gas distribution maps and localize gas sources in large outdoor environments. The robot is equipped with a 3D laser range finder and a remote gas sensor that returns integral concentration measurements. We apply principles of tomography to create a spatial gas distribution model from integral gas concentration measurements. The gas distribution algorithm is framed as a convex optimization problem and it models the mean distribution and the fluctuations of gases. This is important since gas dispersion is not an static phenomenon and furthermore, areas of high fluctuation can be correlated with the location of an emitting source. We use a compact surface representation created from the measurements of the 3D laser range finder with a state of the art mapping algorithm to get a very accurate localization and estimation of the path of the laser beams. In addition, a conic model for the beam of the remote gas sensor is introduced. We observe a substantial improvement in the gas source localization capabilities over previous state-of-The-Art in our evaluation carried out in an open field environment.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84929180349&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICRA.2014.6907798
DO - 10.1109/ICRA.2014.6907798
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84929180349
T3 - Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
SP - 6362
EP - 6367
BT - Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2014
Y2 - 31 May 2014 through 7 June 2014
ER -