TY - CONF A1 - Lohrke, Heiko T1 - Combined GNSS/Visual Inter-Robot Tracking Method for Open-Path Gas Tomography N2 - Methane emissions are a significant environmental and safety concern, yet many gas tomography systems intended to measure them require manual alignment, reliable high-bandwidth links, or fiducials. We present a lightweight, fully autonomous framework enabling line-of-sight inter-robot Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) measurements without such constraints. A sensor robot equipped with a gimbal-mounted TDLAS unit tracks a reflector robot bearing an illuminated, color-controllable target. Coarse localization is achieved via RTK-GNSS, with vision-based fine tracking and passive time synchronization handled onboard. The system, based on off-the-shelf Pixhawk controllers and ArduPilot firmware, was validated in a 15m × 7m outdoor trial. Despite GNSS inaccuracies and deliberate occlusion by a methane-filled bag, the system retained lock, recovered from visual loss in under one second, and captured a 2800 ppm·m plume signature. These results demonstrate robust, scalable methane sensing for mobile gas tomography or standalone leak detection. Core components are released open-source to support future deployment. T2 - IEEE SENSORS 2025 CY - Vancouver, BC, Canada DA - 19.10.2025 KW - Gas tomography KW - Tracking KW - Robot KW - Methane KW - TDLAS PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-65617 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Neumann, Patrick P. T1 - Inspired by Computed Tomography – Swarm-based Gas Tomography N2 - This talk gives an introduction to Mobile Robot Olfaction (MRO) and Robot-assisted Gas Tomography within the scope of the Idea-Workshop "Inspired by Science" @Startup Incubator Berlin. T2 - Inspired by Science: Idea-Workshop CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 13.02.2023 KW - Aerial robot KW - Gas tomography KW - Mobile Robot Olfaction PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-56993 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Neumann, Patrick P. T1 - Mobile Applications with Drones/Robots - Aerial- and Ground-based Gas Tomography N2 - Remote gas sensors mounted on mobile robots enable the mapping of gas distributions in large or poorly accessible areas. A challenging task however, is the generation of three-dimensional distribution maps from these spatially sparse gas measurements. To obtain high-quality reconstructions, the choice of optimal measuring poses is of great importance. Remote gas sensors, that are commonly used in Robot Assisted Gas Tomography (RAGT), require reflecting surfaces within the sensor’s range, limiting the possible sensing geometries, regardless of whether the robots are ground-based or airborne. By combining ground and aerial robots into a heterogeneous swarm whose agents are equipped with reflectors and remote gas sensors, remote inter-robot gas measurements become available, taking RAGT to the next dimension – releasing those constraints. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of drone-to-drone measurements under realistic conditions and highlight the resulting opportunities. T2 - ISOCS Short Course Winter 2023 CY - Bormio, Italy DA - 16.01.2023 KW - Aerial robot KW - Ground robot KW - Gas tomography KW - Inter-robot measurements KW - Plume KW - TDLAS PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-56872 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Neumann, Patrick P. T1 - Remote Drone-to-Drone Gas Sensing: A Feasibility Study N2 - Remote gas sensors mounted on mobile robots enable the mapping of gas distributions in large or poorly accessible areas. A challenging task however, is the generation of three-dimensional distribution maps from these spatially sparse gas measurements. To obtain high-quality reconstructions, the choice of optimal measuring poses is of great importance. Remote gas sensors, that are commonly used in Robot Assisted Gas Tomography (RAGT), require reflecting surfaces within the sensor’s range, limiting the possible sensing geometries, regardless of whether the robots are ground-based or airborne. By combining ground and aerial robots into a heterogeneous swarm whose agents are equipped with reflectors and remote gas sensors, remote inter-robot gas measurements become available, taking RAGT to the next dimension – releasing those constraints. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of drone-to-drone measurements under realistic conditions and highlight the resulting opportunities. T2 - 19th International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose CY - Aveiro, Portugal DA - 29.05.2022 KW - Aerial robot KW - TDLAS KW - Inter-robot measurements KW - Gas tomography KW - Plume PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-54927 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Neumann, Patrick P. A1 - Hüllmann, Dino A1 - Bartholmai, Matthias A1 - Tiebe, Carlo T1 - Gas Tomography Up In The Air! N2 - In this paper, we present 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) sensor with a 3-axis aerial stabilization gimbal for aiming on a versatile octocopter. The TDLAS sensor provides integral gas concentration measurements but no information regarding the distance traveled by the laser diode's beam or the distribution of the gas along the optical path. We complemented the set-up with a laser rangefinder and apply principles of Computed Tomography (CT) to create a model of the spatial gas distribution from these integral concentration measurements. To allow for a rudimentary 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 first results showing the 2D plume reconstruction capabilities of the system under realistic conditions. T2 - NetMon International training course - Low-cost Environmental Monitoring CY - BAM, Berlin, Germany DA - 09.04.2019 KW - Aerial robot KW - Gas tomography KW - Plume KW - TDLAS PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-47800 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Hüllmann, Dino T1 - Gas Dispersion Fluid Mechanics Simulation for Large Outdoor Environments N2 - The development of algorithms for mapping gas distributions and localising gas sources is a challenging task, because gas dispersion is a highly dynamic process and it is impossible to capture ground truth data. Fluid-mechanical simulations are a suitable way to support the development of these algorithms. Several tools for gas dispersion simulation have been developed, but they are not suitable for simulations of large outdoor environments. Here we present a concept of how an existing simulator can be extended to handle both indoor and large outdoor scenarios. T2 - 36th Danubia Adria Symposium on Advances in Experimental Mechanics CY - Pilsen, Czech Republic DA - 24.09.2019 KW - Gas dispersion simulation KW - CFD KW - Gas tomography PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-49225 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Neumann, Patrick P. T1 - Gas Tomography Up In The Air! N2 - In this paper, we present 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) sensor with a 3-axis aerial stabilization gimbal for aiming on a versatile octocopter. The TDLAS sensor provides integral gas concentration measurements but no information regarding the distance traveled by the laser diode's beam or the distribution of the gas along the optical path. We complemented the set-up with a laser rangefinder and apply principles of Computed Tomography (CT) to create a model of the spatial gas distribution from these integral concentration measurements. To allow for a rudimentary 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 first results showing the 2D plume reconstruction capabilities of the system under realistic conditions. T2 - IEEE Sensors 2018 CY - New Delhi, India DA - 28.10.2018 KW - Aerial robot KW - TDLAS KW - Gas tomography KW - Plume PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-46478 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -