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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Dunbabin, M., Grinham, A.: Experimental evaluation of an autonomous surface vehicle for water quality and greenhouse gas monitoring. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 5268–5274, May 2010
Dunbabin, M., Grinham, A., Udy, J.: An autonomous surface vehicle for water quality monitoring. In: Proceedings of Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, Dec 2009
Dunbabin, M., Marques, L.: Robots for environmental monitoring: significant advancements and applications. Rob. Autom. Mag. IEEE 19(1), 24–39 (2012)
Ferreira, C., Almeida, A., Martins, J., Almeida, N., Dias, E., Silva, E.: Autonomous bathymetry for risk assessment with ROAZ robotic surface vehicle. In: Proceedings of Americas, Maritime Systems and Technology (2010)
Garneau, M.-E., Posch, T., Hitz, G., Pomerleau, F., Pradalier, C., Siegwart, R., Pernthaler, J.: Short-term displacement of planktothrix rubescens (cyanobacteria) in a pre-alpine lake observed using an autonomous sampling platform. Limnol. Oceanogr. 58(5), 1892–1906 (2013)
Grinham, A., Dunbabin, M., Gale, D., Udy, J.: Quantification of ebullitive and diffusive methane release to atmosphere from a water storage. Atmos. Environ. 45(39), 7166–7173 (2011)
Hitz, G., Pomerleau, F., Garneau, M.-E., Pradalier, C., Posch, T., Pernthaler, J., Siegwart, R.Y.: Autonomous inland water monitoring: design and application of a surface vessel. Rob. Autom. Mag. IEEE 19(1), 62–72 (2012)
Hombal, V., Sanderson, A., Blidberg, D.R.: Multiscale adaptive sampling in environmental robotics. In: IEEE Conference on Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems (MFI), pp. 80–87, Sept 2010
Leedekerken, J., Fallon, M., Leonard, J.: Mapping complex marine environments with autonomous surface craft. In: Experimental Robotics, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol. 79, pp. 525–539. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2014)
Leonard, N.E., Paley, D.A., Davis, R.E., Fratantoni, D.M., Lekien, F., Zhang, F.: Coordinated control of an underwater glider fleet in an adaptive ocean sampling field experiment in monterey bay. J. Field Robot. 27(6), 718–740 (2010)
Louis, V.St., Kelly, C., Duchemin, E., Rudd, J., Rosenberg, D.: Reservoir surfaces as sources of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere: a global estimate. Bioscience 50, 766–775 (2000)
Manley, J., Willcox, S.: The wave glider: a persistent platform for ocean science. In: OCEANS 2010 IEEE—Sydney, pp. 1–5, May 2010
Rynne, P.F., von Ellenrider, K.D.: A wind and solar-powered autonomous surface vehicle for sea surface measurements. In: Proceedings of IEEE OCEANS, pp. 1–6 (2008)
Scherer, S., Rehder, J., Achar, S., Cover, H., Chambers, A., Nuske, S., Singh, S.: River mapping from a flying robot: state estimation, river detection, and obstacle mapping. Auton. Robots 33(1–2), 189–214 (2012)
Smith, R., Das, J., Chao, Y., Caron, D., Jones, B., Sukhatme. Cooperative multi-AUV tracking of phytoplankton blooms based on ocean model predictions. In: OCEANS 2010 IEEE—Sydney, pp. 1–10 (2010)
Wang, J., Gu, W., Zhu, J.: Design of an autonomous surface vehicle used for marine environmental monitoring. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Advanced Computer Control (ICACC09), pp. 405–409, Jan 2008
Zhang, B., Sukhatme, G.S.: Adaptive sampling for estimating a scalar field using robotic boat and a sensor network. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3673–3680, Apr 2007
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.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
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
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27702-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27700-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27702-8
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)