Flicking: variable sampling method for chemical plume tracing by an autonomous robot

Abstract

In this paper, we proposed a sampling mechanism with flicking motion for chemical plume tracing (CPT). CPT stands for a task to locate a chemical source according to the chemical in the air. Capability of CPT by an autonomous robot is highly demanded because that can be applicable for rescue surveys, security inspections, and resource searching, yet that was difficult for an individual robot due to the complex behavior of airflow. From the viewpoint of bio-inspired systems, we focused on the flicking of an insect, by which it swings its antennae (chemical sensors) depending on situations. We expected the flicking provided variable sampling resolutions according to searching phases. We first design and implemented a variable air sampling mechanism that gave flicking ability to an autonomous mobile robot. Then, we introduced the flicking to a common CPT algorithm inspired by the programmed behavior of a silkworm moth, which was composed of three action phases. For the action phases, we tested the all combinations of wide or narrow range of the sampling system. We verified CPT performance with the proposed device through experiments. The results indicated that the flicking could improve success ratio of CPT tasks without extending needed time for a search.

Keywords

• flicking
• chemical plume tracing
• sampling resolution