As environmental disasters happen more frequently and severely, seeking the source of pollutants or harmful particulates using plume tracking becomes even more important. Plume tracking on small quadrotors would allow these systems to operate around humans and fly in more confined spaces, but can be challenging due to poor sensitivity and long response times from gas sensors that fit on small quadrotors. In this work, we present an approach to complement chemical plume tracking with airflow source-seeking behavior using a custom flow sensor that can sense both airflow magnitude and direction on small quadrotors < 100 g. We use this sensor to implement a modified version of the `Cast and Surge' algorithm that takes advantage of flow direction sensing to find and navigate towards flow sources. A series of characterization experiments verified that the system can detect airflow while in flight and reorient the quadrotor toward the airflow. Several trials with random starting locations and orientations were used to show that our source-seeking algorithm can reliably find a flow source. This work aims to provide a foundation for future platforms that can use flow sensors in concert with other sensors to enable richer plume tracking data collection and source-seeking.

翻译：随着环境灾害愈发频繁和严重，利用羽流追踪技术定位污染物或有害颗粒物源头变得尤为重要。在小型四旋翼飞行器上实现羽流追踪，可使这类系统能够在人类活动区域运行并进入更狭窄的空间，但由于适用于小型四旋翼的气体传感器灵敏度低、响应时间长，这一目标面临挑战。本研究提出一种方法，通过定制化的气流传感器在重量小于100克的小型四旋翼上同时感知气流强度与方向，以气流源追踪行为辅助化学羽流追踪。我们利用该传感器实现了改进版的“抛射-突进”算法，该算法通过感知气流方向以定位并导航至气流源。一系列特性实验验证了该系统能在飞行中检测气流并调整四旋翼朝向气流方向。通过多次随机起始位置与方向的试验，证明了我们的源追踪算法能够可靠地定位气流源。本工作旨在为未来平台奠定基础，使气流传感器能与其他传感器协同工作，实现更丰富的羽流追踪数据采集与源定位能力。