Portable Mass Spectrometry Combined with Robotic Sampling Arrays for Locating Pollutant Sources Using the Trilateration Method

Portable mass spectrometry (MS) plays a crucial role in rapidly identifying various volatile organic compounds (VOCs); however, locating their emission sources remains challenging in hazardous environments, where manual operation poses a high risk. In this work, we developed an unmanned robot-MS system combined with a trilateration method for locating VOC emission sources in different indoor environments. The robotic system integrates three independent sampling devices, enabling the remote extraction of trace VOCs from different sites that are arranged in a triangular configuration. A portable MS was then used to identify complex VOCs and measure their concentration gradients in a field environment. The trilateration method, based on geographic coordinates and geometric algorithms, was used to determine the VOC source location by calculating the distances among the three sampling sites. The proposed robot-MS localization method successfully traced both single and mixed VOCs, achieving low localization error, good sensitivity, and reproducibility. Overall, this robot-MS system represents a promising tool for locating hazardous VOC emissions in inaccessible environments.