Using autonomous robot to detect chemical emissions and track plumes caused by fire, toxic gas leakage and explosive at their early stages, and swiftly localize their sources can avoid risking human health and potentially save lives. The benefits of deploying autonomous robot(s) rather than human beings in performing such hazardous tasks are obvious. Even though using real robots to research, develop, and experiment in real environment are normally preferred, modelling and simulation are indeed sometimes better options when such as a consistent and repeatable complex environment with controllable variables (i.e. wind velocity and plume propagation in this case) for experiments is important. This chapter presents one out of many possible modelling and simulation approaches for the research related to chemical plume tracking and source localization using robots, and covers the modelling of robot, the modelling of the environment, and the integration of both to become a platform.
Effects of altering flow and odor information on plume tracking behavior in walking cockroaches, Periplaneta americana (L.)