Large-Scale Autonomous Gas Monitoring for Volcanic Environments: A Legged Robot on Mount Etna

2026-01-12

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenge of conducting safe and accurate near-surface volcanic gas monitoring in complex terrains where conventional wheeled robots are ineffective. For the first time, the authors deploy the highly mobile quadrupedal robot ANYmal equipped with a quadrupole mass spectrometer in a real volcanic environment—Mount Etna—to perform fully autonomous in situ gas sensing. They develop a modular autonomous system integrating mission planning, global path planning, localization, and terrain perception. Across three field deployments, the system achieved autonomous operation success rates of 93–100%, successfully localized gas sources, and, under teleoperated mode, accurately detected key volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. These results demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of legged robots for high-precision scientific exploration in extreme volcanic terrains.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Localization, Mapping, and Navigation
• Computer Vision: Vision for Robotics & Autonomous Driving
• Natural Language Processing: Safety and Robustness

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Experiences and lessons learnt from Web-based algorithms and system deployments
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Multilingual and cross-lingual Web search

Abstract

Volcanic gas emissions are key precursors of eruptive activity. Yet, obtaining accurate near-surface measurements remains hazardous and logistically challenging, motivating the need for autonomous solutions. Limited mobility in rough volcanic terrain has prevented wheeled systems from performing reliable in situ gas measurements, reducing their usefulness as sensing platforms. We present a legged robotic system for autonomous volcanic gas analysis, utilizing the quadruped ANYmal, equipped with a quadrupole mass spectrometer system. Our modular autonomy stack integrates a mission planning interface, global planner, localization framework, and terrain-aware local navigation. We evaluated the system on Mount Etna across three autonomous missions in varied terrain, achieving successful gas-source detections with autonomy rates of 93-100%. In addition, we conducted a teleoperated mission in which the robot measured natural fumaroles, detecting sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. We discuss lessons learned from the gas-analysis and autonomy perspectives, emphasizing the need for adaptive sensing strategies, tighter integration of global and local planning, and improved hardware design.

Problem

• volcanic gas monitoring
• autonomous robotics
• rough terrain
• in situ measurements
• hazardous environments

Innovation

• legged robot
• autonomous gas monitoring
• volcanic environment
• terrain-aware navigation
• quadrupole mass spectrometer