Low-Cost Sensors for Odor Monitoring: the State of the Art and Challenges

Low-cost sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT) are technologies that have been expressively increasing their development and applications in the last few years. They could be very useful for environmental applications in filling up the gaps in air quality monitoring, especially in low-middle-income countries. However, odor monitoring is a challenge since the low-cost sensors have a limitation on the quantification limit, and few low-cost IoT devices are available. Besides that, and mainly, those instruments have yet to arrive at all levels of environment managers (city halls, environmental agencies, etc.), especially in low-middle countries that are recognized as those with more health disease outcomes due to the air quality levels. The price (at the destination) of even those compact monitor systems and the lack of human capabilities at the local level are still major issues.