Robotic Systems Lab

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

The video introduces a quadruped robot designed to autonomously monitor volcanic gases on Italy’s Mount Etna, addressing the long‑standing challenge of sampling in unstable, toxic terrain. Equipped with a commercial quadrupole mass spectrometer, the robot combines global localization and terrain‑aware navigation, allowing it to traverse loose soil, steep slopes and lava fields. In four field missions—three fully autonomous at the Sylvestri crater rim, a crater descent, and a volcanic desert at Legetto—the system achieved autonomy rates above 90% and identified multiple artificial gas releases. During a tele‑operated run inside Legetto crater, the spectrometer recorded clear sulfur‑dioxide and carbon‑dioxide signatures that matched handheld reference measurements, confirming analytical accuracy even on unstable ground. These results demonstrate that legged platforms can safely collect high‑resolution gas data from hazardous volcanoes, opening the door to continuous, human‑free monitoring and more timely eruption forecasts.