Tracking Dynamic Source Direction with a Novel Stationary Electronic Nose System

Arrays of chemical sensors, usually called electronic noses (ENose), are widely used in industry for classifying and identifying odours. They may also be used to locate the position and detect the direction of an emission source. Usually this task is performed by an ENose cooperating with a mobile vehicle, but when a source is instantaneous, or the surrounding terrain is hard for vehicles to traverse, an alternative approach is needed. Thus a three-step method for a stationary ENose with a novel structure to detect the direction of a dynamic source is presented in this paper. The method uses the ratio of measured concentration from different sensors (C(n) / C(1) where n=2, 4) as a discriminator. In addition, this method could easily be adapted to robotics as an optimized algorithm for path tracking to a source location. The paper presents the results of a simulation of the method.