SniffySquad: Patchiness-Aware Gas Source Localization with Multi-Robot Collaboration

Abstract--Gas source localization is pivotal for the rapid mitigation of gas leakage disasters, where mobile robots emerge as a promising solution. However, existing methods predominantly schedule robots' movements based on reactive stimuli or simplified gas plume models. These approaches typically excel in idealized, simulated environments but fall short in real-world gas environments characterized by their patchy distribution. In this work, we introduce SniffySquad, a multi-robot olfactionbased system designed to address the inherent patchiness in gas source localization. SniffySquad incorporates a patchinessaware active sensing approach that enhances the quality of data collection and estimation. Moreover, it features an innovative collaborative role adaptation strategy to boost the efficiency of source-seeking endeavors. Extensive evaluations demonstrate that our system achieves an increase in the success rate by 20%+ and an improvement in path efficiency by 30%+, outperforming state-of-the-art gas source localization solutions. With the knowledge of source locations, subsequent mitigation operations, such as Rapid and accurate responses to gas leak incidents are shutting off valves or sealing the leaks, can be conducted more essential for safeguarding human and environmental health, logically, efficiently, and safely [5].