Gasbot

The Gasbot project is based on a pre-study, which proposed the use of a mobile-robot platform equipped with methane gas sensors in order to realise 24/7 inspection of deponier including leak detection, and gas distribution mapping.

The aim of the project is two-fold: (1) to show the feasibility of a mobile robot equipped with gas sensors to detect gas leaks, to map gas distributions, and to localize gas sources in outdoor environments; (2) to explore the possibility to commercialize the mobile platform or particular subsystems of this platform.

The project is carried out in cooperation with end-users, for example Atleverket who run landfill sites. Two different types of environments will be considered: landfill sites (methane gas) and road accidents during which there may be gas leaks due to the nature of the goods being transported.

The technological challenges are related to the primary goals of the Gasbot project: (1) discrimination of the target gas in the presence of typical interferents; (2) optimization of the temperature-modulation in a parallel temperature modulated e-nose (PTM e-nose) for gas discrimination; (3) calibration of the PTM e-nose in open sampling systems; and (4) demonstration of a Gasbot prototype (proof of concept), which explores the environment, samples the gas distribution, identifies the analyte, models the gas distribution and localizes gas sources.