Human-inspired chemical sensing for mobile robots

The pattern of airflow has a significant influence on the ability of both animals and robots to detect and locate sources of volatile chemicals. This paper describes a project to build a robot chemical sensing system based on observations of airflow around the human body. These observations indicate that in low-velocity airflow air warmed by body heat rises and carries odorants from near ground level towards the nose. This implies that under the right conditions large areas of the human body act to collect and direct odour chemicals to the nose. The aim of this project is to investigate the feasibility of this odour collection mechanism by building a robotic odour sensing system working on this principle and to compare it with the same chemical sensor system when not heated. The results indicate the improved sensitivity of the heated sensor system. This paper describes the sensor system and gives results of sensor tests and odour source location experiments performed using it.