AirleakSlam: Detection of Pressurized Air Leaks Using Passive Ultrasonic Sensors

It is estimated that up to a third of the power consumption of compressed air networks is lost due to undetected leaks. Current methods of detecting and locating these air leaks involve manual labor using handheld devices that can detect the ultrasonic sound generated by the escaping air. In addition, the extra energy costs caused by the air leaks are concealed in the total cost of energy, reducing the sense of needing to find a solution. Therefore, there is limited commitment to actively detect and repair these air leaks. In order to address this issue, we propose a solution that requires no manual labor in the localization process, by fitting existing factory vehicles with an enclosure containing all the required sensors: a laser scanner for SLAM localization and an ultrasonic microphone array. By combining SLAM techniques with our ultrasonic microphone array on a robot, we are able to locate leaks in a large environment with high precision in 3D. By automating this process we aim to encourage the industry to proactively search for air leaks to reduce the amount of energy loss at a fraction of the cost of current methods.