Autonomous search for gas source in an oil & gas facility

A common problem in oil and gas facilities is the leaking of fugitive emissions such as methane or other hazardous gasses. These hazardous, pollutant, and/or wasteful gases seep due to flaws in the seals of pressurized systems in refineries and other downstream sites. Operators expend great effort to detect, locate, and correct such leaks. Detection lends itself to automation via a mobile robot equipped with a gas and wind sensor. Prior work has developed such robotic methods, which we apply to demonstrations at UT Austin . We present an integrated system with autonomous navigation, remote vision, and gas sensing capabilities, along with task specification and data visualization methods. The system locates and characterizes a single gas source, and reports the location to an operator. Preliminary results based on the developed experimental road map validate the approach for single gas source localization, but additional data must be collected to fully understand the possible localization accuracy given particular environmental conditions.