Approaches to time-dependent gas distribution modelling

Mobile robot olfaction solutions for gas distribution modelling offer a number of advantages, among them au- tonomous monitoring in different environments, mobility to select sampling locations, and ability to cooperate with other systems. However, most data-driven, statistical gas distribution modelling approaches assume that the gas distribution is generated by a time-invariant random process. Such time-invariant approaches cannot model well developing plumes or fundamental changes in the gas distribution. In this paper, we discuss approaches that explicitly consider the measurement time, either by sub-sampling according to a given time-scale or by introducing a recency weight that relates measurement and prediction time. We evaluate the performance of these time-dependent approaches in simulation and in real-world experiments using mobile robots. The results demonstrate that in dynamic scenarios improved gas distribution models can be obtained with time-dependent approaches.