Orange Turbulent Smoke (VIDEO)
Caption
To get an idea of the complexity of the air currents inside even a simple U-shaped box, researchers used red chalk to follow the air plumes and movements. It's complexities like these that make it difficult for robots to simply "follow their nose" to locate sources of gaseous leaks. Duke researchers have built a robot that, rather than just following the strongest scent, is plugging measurements of concentration and airflow into a complex partial differential equation and then deciding where the most useful position to take another measurement is. By repeating this process, it can find an ethanol source in just a dozen or two tries in a complex environment with multiple sources.
Credit
Reza Khodayi-mehr
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