Search

In this work we present a novel multi-sensor unit to detect and discriminate unknown gases in uncontrolled environments. The unit includes three metal oxide (MOX) sensors with CMOS micro heaters, a plasmonic enhanced non-dispersive infra-red (NDIR) sensor, a commercial temperature humidity sensor, and a flow sensor. The proposed sensing unit was evaluated with plumes of gases (propanol, ethanol and acetone) in both, a laboratory setup on a gas testing bench and on-board a mobile robot operating in an indoor workshop. It offers significantly improved performance compared to commercial systems, in terms of power consumption, response time and physical size. We verified the ability to discriminate gases in an unsupervised manner, with data collected on the robot and high accuracy was obtained in the classification of propanol versus acetone (96%), and ethanol versus acetone (90%)., SmokeBot

In this work we present a novel multi-sensor unit to detect and discriminate unknown gases in uncontrolled environments. The unit includes three metal oxide (MOX) sensors with CMOS micro heaters, a plasmonic enhanced non-dispersive infra-red (NDIR) sensor, a commercial temperature humidity sensor, and a flow sensor. The proposed sensing unit was evaluated with plumes of gases (propanol, ethanol and acetone) in both, a laboratory setup on a gas testing bench and on-board a mobile robot operating in an indoor workshop. It offers significantly improved performance compared to commercial systems, in terms of power consumption, response time and physical size. We verified the ability to discriminate gases in an unsupervised manner, with data collected on the robot and high accuracy was obtained in the classification of propanol versus acetone (96%), and ethanol versus acetone (90%)., SmokeBot

In this work we present a novel multi-sensor unit to detect and discriminate unknown gases in uncontrolled environments. The unit includes three metal oxide (MOX) sensors with CMOS micro heaters, a plasmonic enhanced non-dispersive infra-red (NDIR) sensor, a commercial temperature humidity sensor, and a flow sensor. The proposed sensing unit was evaluated with plumes of gases (propanol, ethanol and acetone) in both, a laboratory setup on a gas testing bench and on-board a mobile robot operating in an indoor workshop. It offers significantly improved performance compared to commercial systems, in terms of power consumption, response time and physical size. We verified the ability to discriminate gases in an unsupervised manner, with data collected on the robot and high accuracy was obtained in the classification of propanol versus acetone (96%), and ethanol versus acetone (90%)., SmokeBot

In this work we present a novel multi-sensor unit to detect and discriminate unknown gases in uncontrolled environments. The unit includes three metal oxide (MOX) sensors with CMOS micro heaters, a plasmonic enhanced non-dispersive infra-red (NDIR) sensor, a commercial temperature humidity sensor, and a flow sensor. The proposed sensing unit was evaluated with plumes of gases (propanol, ethanol and acetone) in both, a laboratory setup on a gas testing bench and on-board a mobile robot operating in an indoor workshop. It offers significantly improved performance compared to commercial systems, in terms of power consumption, response time and physical size. We verified the ability to discriminate gases in an unsupervised manner, with data collected on the robot and high accuracy was obtained in the classification of propanol versus acetone (96%), and ethanol versus acetone (90%)., SmokeBot

In this work we present a novel multi-sensor unit to detect and discriminate unknown gases in uncontrolled environments. The unit includes three metal oxide (MOX) sensors with CMOS micro heaters, a plasmonic enhanced non-dispersive infra-red (NDIR) sensor, a commercial temperature humidity sensor, and a flow sensor. The proposed sensing unit was evaluated with plumes of gases (propanol, ethanol and acetone) in both, a laboratory setup on a gas testing bench and on-board a mobile robot operating in an indoor workshop. It offers significantly improved performance compared to commercial systems, in terms of power consumption, response time and physical size. We verified the ability to discriminate gases in an unsupervised manner, with data collected on the robot and high accuracy was obtained in the classification of propanol versus acetone (96%), and ethanol versus acetone (90%)., SmokeBot

The detection of changes in the response of metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors deployed in an open sampling system is a hard problem. It is relevant for applications such as gas leak detection in mines or large-scale pollution monitoring where it is impractical to continuously store or transfer sensor readings and reliable calibration is hard to achieve. Under these circumstances, it is desirable to detect points in the signal where a change indicates a significant event, e.g. the presence of gas or a sudden change of concentration. The key idea behind the proposed change detection approach is that a change in the emission modality of a gas source appears locally as an exponential function in the response of MOX sensors due to their long response and recovery times. The algorithm proposed in this paper, rTREFEX, is an extension of the previously proposed TREFEX algorithm. rTREFEX interprets the sensor response by fitting piecewise exponential functions with different time constants for the response and recovery phase. The number of exponentials, which has to be kept as low as possible, is determined automatically using an iterative approach that solves a sequence of convex optimization problems based on l1-norm. The algorithm is evaluated with an experimental setup where a gas source changes in intensity, compound, and mixture ratio, and the gas source is delivered to the sensors exploiting natural advection and turbulence mechanisms. rTREFEX is compared against the previously proposed TREFEX, which already proved superior to other algorithms.

Many applications of metal oxide gas sensors can benefit from reliable algorithmsto detect significant changes in the sensor response. Significant changes indicate a changein the emission modality of a distant gas source and occur due to a sudden change ofconcentration or exposure to a different compound. As a consequence of turbulent gastransport and the relatively slow response and recovery times of metal oxide sensors,their response in open sampling configuration exhibits strong fluctuations that interferewith the changes of interest. In this paper we introduce TREFEX, a novel change pointdetection algorithm, especially designed for metal oxide gas sensors in an open samplingsystem. TREFEX models the response of MOX sensors as a piecewise exponentialsignal and considers the junctions between consecutive exponentials as change points. Weformulate non-linear trend filtering and change point detection as a parameter-free convexoptimization problem for single sensors and sensor arrays. We evaluate the performanceof the TREFEX algorithm experimentally for different metal oxide sensors and severalgas emission profiles. A comparison with the previously proposed GLR method shows aclearly superior performance of the TREFEX algorithm both in detection performance andin estimating the change time.

Many applications of metal oxide gas sensors can benefit from reliable algorithmsto detect significant changes in the sensor response. Significant changes indicate a changein the emission modality of a distant gas source and occur due to a sudden change ofconcentration or exposure to a different compound. As a consequence of turbulent gastransport and the relatively slow response and recovery times of metal oxide sensors,their response in open sampling configuration exhibits strong fluctuations that interferewith the changes of interest. In this paper we introduce TREFEX, a novel change pointdetection algorithm, especially designed for metal oxide gas sensors in an open samplingsystem. TREFEX models the response of MOX sensors as a piecewise exponentialsignal and considers the junctions between consecutive exponentials as change points. Weformulate non-linear trend filtering and change point detection as a parameter-free convexoptimization problem for single sensors and sensor arrays. We evaluate the performanceof the TREFEX algorithm experimentally for different metal oxide sensors and severalgas emission profiles. A comparison with the previously proposed GLR method shows aclearly superior performance of the TREFEX algorithm both in detection performance andin estimating the change time.

Many applications of metal oxide gas sensors can benefit from reliable algorithmsto detect significant changes in the sensor response. Significant changes indicate a changein the emission modality of a distant gas source and occur due to a sudden change ofconcentration or exposure to a different compound. As a consequence of turbulent gastransport and the relatively slow response and recovery times of metal oxide sensors,their response in open sampling configuration exhibits strong fluctuations that interferewith the changes of interest. In this paper we introduce TREFEX, a novel change pointdetection algorithm, especially designed for metal oxide gas sensors in an open samplingsystem. TREFEX models the response of MOX sensors as a piecewise exponentialsignal and considers the junctions between consecutive exponentials as change points. Weformulate non-linear trend filtering and change point detection as a parameter-free convexoptimization problem for single sensors and sensor arrays. We evaluate the performanceof the TREFEX algorithm experimentally for different metal oxide sensors and severalgas emission profiles. A comparison with the previously proposed GLR method shows aclearly superior performance of the TREFEX algorithm both in detection performance andin estimating the change time.

Many applications of metal oxide gas sensors can benefit from reliable algorithmsto detect significant changes in the sensor response. Significant changes indicate a changein the emission modality of a distant gas source and occur due to a sudden change ofconcentration or exposure to a different compound. As a consequence of turbulent gastransport and the relatively slow response and recovery times of metal oxide sensors,their response in open sampling configuration exhibits strong fluctuations that interferewith the changes of interest. In this paper we introduce TREFEX, a novel change pointdetection algorithm, especially designed for metal oxide gas sensors in an open samplingsystem. TREFEX models the response of MOX sensors as a piecewise exponentialsignal and considers the junctions between consecutive exponentials as change points. Weformulate non-linear trend filtering and change point detection as a parameter-free convexoptimization problem for single sensors and sensor arrays. We evaluate the performanceof the TREFEX algorithm experimentally for different metal oxide sensors and severalgas emission profiles. A comparison with the previously proposed GLR method shows aclearly superior performance of the TREFEX algorithm both in detection performance andin estimating the change time.

Gas quantification based on the response of an array of metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors in an Open Sampling System is a complex problem due to the highly dynamic characteristic of turbulent airflow and the slow dynamics of the MOX sensors. However, many gas related applications require to determine the gas concentration the sensors are being exposed to. Due to the chaotic nature that dominates gas dispersal, in most cases it is desirable to provide, together with an estimate of the mean concentration, an estimate of the uncertainty of the prediction. This work presents a probabilistic approach for gas quantification with an array of MOX gas sensors based on Gaussian Processes, estimating for every measurement of the sensors a posterior distribution of the concentration, from which confidence intervals can be obtained. The proposed approach has been tested with an experimental setup where an array of MOX sensors and a Photo Ionization Detector (PID), used to obtain ground truth concentration, are placed downwind with respect to the gas source. Our approach has been implemented and compared with standard gas quantification methods, demonstrating the advantages when estimating gas concentrations., Funding agency:Regional Government of Andalucia European Union (FEDER) P08-TEP-4016

Chemo-resistive transduction presents practical advantages for capturing the spatio-temporal and structural organization of chemical compounds dispersed in different human habitats. In an open sampling system, however, where the chemo-sensory elements are directly exposed to the environment being monitored, the identification and monitoring of chemical substances present a more difficult challenge due to the dispersion mechanisms of gaseous chemical analytes, namely diffusion, turbulence, and advection. The success of such actively changeable practice is influenced by the adequate implementation of algorithmically driven formalisms combined with the appropriate design of experimental protocols. On the basis of this functional joint-formulation, in this study we examine an innovative methodology based on the inhibitory processing mechanisms encountered in the structural assembly of the insect's brain, namely Inhibitory Support Vector Machine (ISVM) applied to training a sensor array platform and evaluate its capabilities relevant to odor detection and identification under complex environmental conditions. We generated - and made publicly available - an extensive and unique dataset with a chemical detection platform consisting of 72 conductometric metal-oxide based chemical sensors in a custom-designed wind tunnel test-bed facility to test our methodology. Our findings suggest that the aforementioned methodology can be a valuable tool to guide the decision of choosing the training conditions for a cost-efficient system calibration as well as an important step toward the understanding of the degradation level of the sensory system when the environmental conditions change.

Many applications of metal oxide gas sensors can benefit from reliable algorithmsto detect significant changes in the sensor response. Significant changes indicate a changein the emission modality of a distant gas source and occur due to a sudden change ofconcentration or exposure to a different compound. As a consequence of turbulent gastransport and the relatively slow response and recovery times of metal oxide sensors,their response in open sampling configuration exhibits strong fluctuations that interferewith the changes of interest. In this paper we introduce TREFEX, a novel change pointdetection algorithm, especially designed for metal oxide gas sensors in an open samplingsystem. TREFEX models the response of MOX sensors as a piecewise exponentialsignal and considers the junctions between consecutive exponentials as change points. Weformulate non-linear trend filtering and change point detection as a parameter-free convexoptimization problem for single sensors and sensor arrays. We evaluate the performanceof the TREFEX algorithm experimentally for different metal oxide sensors and severalgas emission profiles. A comparison with the previously proposed GLR method shows aclearly superior performance of the TREFEX algorithm both in detection performance andin estimating the change time.

Many applications of metal oxide gas sensors can benefit from reliable algorithmsto detect significant changes in the sensor response. Significant changes indicate a changein the emission modality of a distant gas source and occur due to a sudden change ofconcentration or exposure to a different compound. As a consequence of turbulent gastransport and the relatively slow response and recovery times of metal oxide sensors,their response in open sampling configuration exhibits strong fluctuations that interferewith the changes of interest. In this paper we introduce TREFEX, a novel change pointdetection algorithm, especially designed for metal oxide gas sensors in an open samplingsystem. TREFEX models the response of MOX sensors as a piecewise exponentialsignal and considers the junctions between consecutive exponentials as change points. Weformulate non-linear trend filtering and change point detection as a parameter-free convexoptimization problem for single sensors and sensor arrays. We evaluate the performanceof the TREFEX algorithm experimentally for different metal oxide sensors and severalgas emission profiles. A comparison with the previously proposed GLR method shows aclearly superior performance of the TREFEX algorithm both in detection performance andin estimating the change time.