Short Biography

I am currently a Ph.D. student at DISAL working on Gas Source Localization (GSL). In 2024, I completed my Master’s degree in robotics at EPFL, focusing especially on mobile robotics. For my master’s thesis, I spent 6 months at the Autonomous Systems Laboratory at ETHZ working on mapping using low-cost sensors and a NeRF based approach. My journey into the world of science and technology started with my Bachelor degree in Microengineering at EPFL in 2020.

Further information:

• EPFL contact page

Research interests and projects

Gas leaks can pose serious threats to human safety and cause severe environmental damage. Robotic Gas Source Localization (GSL) leverages mobile robots to efficiently localize gas sources. However, this task remains inherently challenging due to the complex interplay between gas diffusion and wind flows. GSL methods often struggle to generalize to unstructured and three-dimensional environments.

This thesis aims to utilize multicopters for GSL missions and enhance their robustness using the following main ingredients. First, replace classical algorithms or selected components of them by machine learning techniques. Second, employ advanced wind sensing and modeling to better understand gas transport in the air. Third, extend the algorithms to multi-robot systems. All efforts aim to make GSL more robust in complex three-dimensional environments that include diverse obstacles, wind conditions, and gas release rates.

Publications

• VIRUS-NeRF – Vision, InfraRed and UltraSonic based Neural Radiance Fields. Schmid, N., von Einem, C., Cadena, C., Siegwart, R., Hruby, L., & Tschopp, F. In press with IROS 2024 (see IEEE Xplore).