Mobile Robotics and Olfaction Lab

Team information

The focus of the MRO lab is on perception systems for mobile robots. Our goal is to advance the theoretical and practical foundations that allow mobile robots to operate in an unconstrained, dynamic environment. The approaches that we develop address real-world needs and are typically characterized by fusion of different sensor modalities. Where possible the results of our research work are timely integrated in industrial demonstrators. Research is organized along two major strands in the areas of mobile robotics and artificial olfaction.

Mobile Robotics

Research in Mobile Robotics is aimed at autonomous and safe long-term operation in real world scenarios. Industrial relevance and technology transfer of our research results is facilitated through collaborative projects with industrial partners in the area of professional service robots for autonomous transportation ("logistics robots"). These collaborative projects deal with robotic forklifts in warehouses, robotic wheel loaders on asphalt production sites, underground mining vehicles and garbage bin collecting robots in public areas as well as robotic systems to unload containers.

Artificial Olfaction

Artificial Olfaction is the science of gas sensing with artificial sensor systems. We study in particular open sampling systems where the gas sensors are directly exposed to the environment. Open sampling systems are opposed to common laboratory setups, which use sophisticated sampling systems to keep parameters such as air flow, temperature, humidity and concentration of the chemical compound constant over a prolonged time. For most real-world applications this is not possible. By addressing the corresponding challenges our goal is to develop artificial olfaction solutions, particularly for open sampling gas sensor systems. Combining artificial olfaction and mobile robotics, we are developing the foundations for Mobile Robot Olfaction where it is our goal to further develop systems known as "electronic nose" (e-nose) towards a "mobile nose" (m-nose). Application domains of interest include gas sensor networks and mobile robots for surveillance of landfill sites, monitoring of air pollution and gas leak detection and localization.