Abstract
Accurately quantifying total greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. methane) from natural systems such as lakes, reservoirs and wetlands requires the spatial-temporal measurement of both diffusive and ebullitive (bubbling) emissions. Traditional, manual, measurement techniques provide only limited localised assessment of methane flux, often introducing significant errors when extrapolated to the whole-of-system. In this paper, we directly address these current sampling limitations and present a novel multiple robotic boat system configured to measure the spatiotemporal release of methane to atmosphere across inland waterways. The system, consisting of multiple networked Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASVs) and capable of persistent operation, enables scientists to remotely evaluate the performance of sampling and modelling algorithms for real-world process quantification over extended periods of time. This paper provides an overview of the multi-robot sampling system including the vehicle and gas sampling unit design. Experimental results are shown demonstrating the system’s ability to autonomously navigate and implement an exploratory sampling algorithm to measure methane emissions on two inland reservoirs.
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Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Alistair Grinham and Katrin Strum from the University of Queensland for their assistance with the initial gas sampling unit and ASV prototype evaluation, and laboratory processing of gas samples. Also thanks to Riki Lamont for his assistance in the payload integration and commissioning of the ASVs.
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Dunbabin, M. (2016). Autonomous Greenhouse Gas Sampling Using Multiple Robotic Boats. In: Wettergreen, D., Barfoot, T. (eds) Field and Service Robotics. Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol 113. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27702-8_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27702-8_2
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