Estimation of Gas-Source Location Using Gas Sensors and Ultrasonic Anemometer

This paper reports on a new method to search for a gas source. In the previous works on gas-source localization, robotic or human searchers were navigated using gas sensors and anemometers in order to track gas plumes and find their source locations. Instead, the proposed method provides a map showing the certainty of the gas-source location. In the proposed method, the area under consideration is meshed into a two dimensional grid of cells. At each observation of the gas concentration, the certainty of having a gas source with a specific strength is calculated for each cell using a turbulent diffusion model of gas distribution. The results are aggregated after repeating the observations at multiple points. The gas source is estimated to be in the cell for which high certainty values are consistently obtained. Successful demonstrations on estimating the gas-source location are presented to show the validity of the proposed method.