Abstract
In this study, we design and verify an intake system using the wake of a pocket-sized quadcopter for the chemical plume tracing (CPT) problem. Solving CPT represents an important technique in the field of engineering because it can be used to perform rescue operations at the time of a disaster and to identify sources of harmful substances. An appropriate intake of air when sensing odors plays an important role in performing CPT. Hence, we used the air flow generated by a quadcopter itself to intake chemical particles into two alcohol sensors. By experimental evaluation, we verified that the quadcopter wake intake method has good directivity and can be used to realize CPT. Concretely, even at various odor source heights, the quadcopter had a three-dimensional CPT success rate of at least 70%. These results imply that, although a further development of three-dimensional CPT is necessary in order to conduct it in unknown and cluttered environments, the intake method proposed in this paper enables a pocket-sized quadcopter to perform three-dimensional CPT.
Highlights
This article presents how to sense an odor with a pocket-sized quadcopter
It is expected that the feasibility and practicality of using pocket-sized quadcopters at disaster sites will be further improved by equipping them with the ability to search for odor sources
chemical plume tracing (CPT) in unknown and cluttered environments, the intake system proposed in this paper enables a pocket-sized quadcopter to perform three-dimensional CPT
Summary
This article presents how to sense an odor with a pocket-sized quadcopter. The pocket-sized quadcopter is small and has excellent mobility. Researchers have focused their attention on how to control the flight of pocket-sized quadcopters using an onboard camera in order to enter through gaps and move around collapsed buildings at disaster sites [1,2,3,4]. It is expected that the feasibility and practicality of using pocket-sized quadcopters at disaster sites will be further improved by equipping them with the ability to search for odor sources. There is not enough discussion on the mechanism for sensing odors with a pocket-sized quadcopter because it is not clear how the odor distribution around the quadcopter changes due to the rotation of its own propellers.
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