For decades, Metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors have been commercially available and used in various applications such as the Smart City, gas monitoring, and safety due to advantages such as high sensitivity, a high detection range, fast reaction time, and cost-effectiveness. However, several factors affect the sensing ability of MOX gas sensors. This article presents the results of a study on the cross-sensitivity of MOX gas sensors toward ambient temperature and humidity. A gas sensor array consisting of temperature and humidity sensors and four different MOX gas sensors (MiCS-5524, GM-402B, GM-502B, and MiCS-6814) was developed. The sensors were subjected to various relative gas concentrations, temperatures (from 16 °C to 30 °C), and humidity levels (from 75% to 45%), representing a typical indoor environment. The results proved that the gas sensor responses were significantly affected by the temperature and humidity. The increased temperature and humidity levels led to a decreased response for all sensors, except for MiCS-6814, which showed the opposite response. Hence, this work proposed regression models for each sensor, which can correct the gas sensor response drift caused by the ambient temperature and humidity variations. The models were validated, and the standard deviations of the corrected sensor response were found to be 1.66 kΩ, 13.17 kΩ, 29.67 kΩ, and 0.12 kΩ, respectively. These values are much smaller compared to the raw sensor response (i.e., 18.22, 24.33 kΩ, 95.18 kΩ, and 2.99 kΩ), indicating that the model provided a more stable output and minimised the drift. Overall, the results also proved that the models can be used for MOX gas sensors employed in the training process, as well as for other sets of gas sensors.

Metal Oxide (MOX) semiconductor gas sensors have been widely used in monitoring targeted gases that are present in the environment. This type of gas sensor can also be utilized as a safety device to detect the source of gas leakage. Their uses in many applications are due to being user-friendly, lower in cost, high sensitivity and relatively quick response time. However, there are several factors that could affect their performance. This work investigates the effects of the changes in ambient temperature and humidity on the readings of these sensors at various gas concentration levels. A PCB board was developed, which consists of temperature and humidity sensors, as well as eight different MOX gas sensors (TGS2600, TCS2602, CCS803, MiCS552, GM-402B, GM-502B, GM-702B and MiCS6814). The board was subjected to various temperatures (16˚C to 30˚C) and humidity levels (45% to 75%). At each of these parameter settings, the gas sensor responses were recorded at different ethanol gas concentrations. The results of the study showed that the temperature and humidity affected all the gas sensor response. The magnitude of the sensors responses was observed to decrease with rising temperature and humidity levels, except for MICS6814 (NH3 sensor) which responses in the opposite manner. Hence, there is the need to take into consideration of the drift of gas sensors’ responses when there are changes in temperature and humidity.

This paper presents the development of gas sensor module consisting of metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors for indoor air contaminant measurement. The first phase of the studies involves the design of PCBs board for six different metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors particularly CCS803, MiCS5524, GM-402B, GM-502B, GM-702B and MiCS6814. Next, the main board consisting of temperature, humidity and another two MOX gas sensors (i.e TGS2600 and TGS2602) was developed for the acquisition of the sensors. A partially closed chamber was designed and fabricated to fit the main board and allows inflow and outflow of gases. The responses of the gas sensors were measured in a closed room, with the air conditioner turned on and off periodically. The results show that all the MOX gas sensor used are affected by temperature and humidity of the environment. Therefore, the sensor response drift needs to be corrected in order to obtain reliable indoor air contaminant measurement.

Mobile olfaction is one of the applications of mobile robots. Metal oxide sensors (MOX) are mobile robots’ most popular gas sensors. However, the sensor has drawbacks, such as high-power consumption, high operating temperature, and long recovery time. This research compares a reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sensor with the traditionally used MOX in a mobile robot. The method uses a map created from simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) combined with gas distribution mapping (GDM) to draw the gas distribution in the map and locate the gas source. RGO and MOX are tested in the lab for their response to 100 and 300 ppm ethanol. Both sensors’ response and recovery times show that RGO resulted in 56% and 54% faster response times, with 33% and 57% shorter recovery times than MOX. In the experiment, one gas source, 95% ethanol solution, is placed in the lab, and the mobile robot runs through the map in 7 min and 12 min after the source is set, with five repetitions. The results show the average distance error of the predicted source from the actual location was 19.52 cm and 30.28 cm using MOX and 25.24 cm and 30.60 cm using the RGO gas sensor for the 7th and 12th min trials, respectively. The errors show that the predicted gas source location based on MOX is 1.0% (12th min), much closer to the actual site than that predicted with RGO. However, RGO also shows a larger gas sensing area than MOX by 0.35–8.33% based on the binary image of the SLAM-GDM map, which indicates that RGO is much more sensitive than MOX in the trial run. Regarding power consumption, RGO consumes an average of 294.605 mW, 56.33% less than MOX, with an average consumption of 674.565 mW. The experiment shows that RGO can perform as well as MOX in mobile olfaction applications but with lower power consumption and operating temperature.

There are times when people are required to spend time indoors, especially due to unhealthy outdoor air quality as well during a pandemic when lockdowns are imposed. However, spending time indoors can also at times be dangerous due to the release of harmful gasses if left unchecked. This has very much to do with many parameters, among which is the indoor environment and its ventilation. The latter is affected by the way gases distribute inside the building. It is influenced by many factors such as temperature, wind, air circulation, and also ventilation system itself. The knowledge on how the gases spread in different conditions within the indoor environment can be utilized in many applications such as improving the smoke detector safety system and identifying as well as predicting the potential risks. This paper presents the investigation of the effect of different temperatures on gas distribution in an indoor environment. A three-dimensional simulation was performed of different temperature gas released in a closed room that has different ambient temperatures. The effect of temperature on the gas dispersion was observed. The results revealed that there is a significant effect of temperature on the way gas spread in the indoor environment support by the theoretical knowledge on the relationship between temperature and gas in the gas law.