A microcontroller-based mobile robotic platform for odor detection

Recent applications of mobile robotics in odor detection field have driven an increasing interest of scientist and engineers. Several applications have been reported in areas as water and air monitoring; gas leakage detection; explosives, drugs or people detection and demining tasks, among others. Many robotic platforms (i.e. hardware and software) have been proposed to carry out an odor detection task however, in this field, this remains an open research. This research requires the development and evaluation of a robust mobile robotic platform which supports an odor sensory unit, as well as some development tools like PC communication, data saving and the odor delivery system. This work has been focused on this topic. A LabVIEW virtual instrument was developed to allow data acquisition from sensors as well as motor commands, via serial port. The platform was experimentally validated using two reactive Braitenberg inspired algorithms.