TY - JOUR A1 - Neumann, Patrick P. A1 - Kohlhoff, Harald A1 - Hüllmann, Dino A1 - Krentel, Daniel A1 - Kluge, Martin A1 - Dzierliński, M. A1 - Lilienthal, A. J. A1 - Bartholmai, Matthias T1 - Aerial-based gas tomography – from single beams to complex gas distributions N2 - In this paper, we present and validate the concept of an autonomous aerial robot to reconstruct tomographic 2D slices of gas plumes in outdoor environments. Our platform, the so-called Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Remote Gas Sensing (UAV-REGAS), combines a lightweight Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) gas sensor with a 3-axis aerial stabilization gimbal for aiming at a versatile octocopter. While the TDLAS sensor provides integral gas concentration measurements, it does not measure the distance traveled by the laser diode’s beam nor the distribution of gas along the optical path. Thus, we complement the set-up with a laser rangefinder and apply principles of Computed Tomography (CT) to create a model of the spatial gas distribution from a set of integral concentration measurements. To allow for a fundamental ground truth evaluation of the applied gas tomography algorithm, we set up a unique outdoor test environment based on two 3D ultrasonic anemometers and a distributed array of 10 infrared gas transmitters. We present results showing its performance characteristics and 2D plume reconstruction capabilities under realistic conditions. The proposed system can be deployed in scenarios that cannot be addressed by currently available robots and thus constitutes a significant step forward for the field of Mobile Robot Olfaction (MRO). KW - Aerial robot olfaction KW - Mobile robot olfaction KW - Gas tomography KW - TDLAS KW - Plume PY - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-487843 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - London AN - OPUS4-48784 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dzierliński, M. A1 - Neumann, Patrick P. A1 - Bartholmai, Matthias ED - Zagrobelny, Maciej ED - Suś-Ryszkowska, Małgorzata T1 - Wykrywanie wycieków gazu za pomocą bezzałogowych pojazdów powietrznych T1 - Detection of gas leaks by unmanned aerial vehicles N2 - Wyciek metanu (CH4) z infrastruktury takiej jak rurociągi czy zbiorniki magazynowe ma kluczowe znaczenie dla środowiska oraz stwarza zagrożenie dla bezpieczeństwa ludzi i mienia. Obecnie, po okresie bezawaryjnej eksploatacji, można zaobserwować wzrost liczby incydentów spowodowanych nieszczelnościami rurociągów przesyłowych. W Polsce szczególnie problematyczne okazują się gazociągi, które powstały dekady temu. W tamtym czasie normy techniczne i przepisy budowlane były łagodniejsze niż obecnie obowiązujące. Integralność tych gazociągów jest trudna do skontrolowania, gdyż na etapie budowy nie zostały one przystosowane do badania tłokami pomiarowymi. Aby sprostać temu wyzwaniu, UDT poszukuje metod umożliwiających szybkie i niezawodne wykrywanie oraz lokalizowanie nieszczelności gazociągów na duże odległości. N2 - Methane leakage (CH4) from infrastructure such as pipelines or storage tanks is crucial for the environment and poses a threat to the safety of people and property. Today, after a period of failure-free operation, an increase in the number of incidents caused by leaks in transmission pipelines can be observed. In Poland, gas pipelines created decades ago turn out to be particularly problematic. At that time, technical standards and building regulations were milder than those currently in force. The integrity of these pipelines is difficult to control, as they were not adapted for testing with measuring pigs at the construction stage. To meet this challenge, UDT is looking for methods to quickly and reliably detect and locate leaks in pipelines over long distances. KW - Aerial robot KW - Mobile robot olfaction KW - Tomographic reconstruction of gas plumes KW - Tunable diode laser absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) KW - UAV-REGAS PY - 2018 UR - https://www.udt.gov.pl/inspektor-on-line VL - 4 SP - 19 EP - 21 PB - Urząd Dozoru Technicznego CY - Warszawa, Polska AN - OPUS4-47062 LA - pol AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bartholmai, Matthias A1 - Tiebe, Carlo A1 - Neumann, Patrick P. T1 - Two tasks in environmental monitoring - calibration and characterization of gas sensors and remote gas sensing with multicopter platforms - Part 1 N2 - Leaking methane from infrastructures, such as pipelines and landfills, is critical for the environment but can also pose a safety risk. To enable a fast detection and localization of these kind of leaks, BAM developed a novel robotic platform for aerial remote gas sensing. Spectroscopic measurement methods for remote sensing of selected gases lend themselves for use on mini-copters, which offer a number of advantages for inspection and surveillance over traditional methods. No direct contact with the target gas is needed and thus the influence of the copter downwash on the measured gas plume can be kept to a minimum. This allows to overcome one of the major issues with gas-sensitive mini-copters. On the other hand, remote gas sensors, most prominently Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) sensors have been too bulky given the payload and energy restrictions of mini-copters. Here, we present the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Remote Gas Sensing (UAV-REGAS), which combines a novel lightweight TDLAS sensor with a 3-axis aerial stabilization gimbal for aiming on a versatile multicopter. The proposed system can be deployed in scenarios that cannot be addressed by currently available systems and thus constitutes a significant step forward for the field of Mobile Robot Olfaction (MRO). It enables tomographic reconstruction of gas plumes and a localization of gas sources. We also present first results showing its performance under realistic conditions. T2 - Aarhus University, Department of Environmental Science, External seminar with Matthias Bartholmai and Carlo Tiebe CY - Roskilde, Denmark DA - 29.08.2018 KW - Environmental monitoring KW - Remote gas sensing KW - Flying platforms KW - Mobile robot olfaction KW - UAS PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-45838 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -