This paper reports on the development of compact surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors for mobile robot olfaction.Underwater\nrobots benefit from olfactory sensing capabilities in various tasks including the search for unexploded ordnance and undersea\nwreckage. Although the SPR-based chemical sensor is a promising sensing platform, the cumbersome optical setup has been\nlimiting its use on mobile robots. The proposed sensor employs a periodic metal structure formed on a self-assembled layer of\npolystyrene particles of 200 nm in diameter.With the grating of this size, SPR can be excited even with a simple LED light source.\nThe change in the absorbance is simply measured using a photodiode. Demonstration of the proposed SPR sensor is provided by\nmounting the sensors on an underwater crayfish robot that autonomously searches for a chemical source. The fabricated sensor\nshows linear response to ascorbic acid for a concentration range from 20 to 80 mM. Responses of the bare and thiol-coated gold\nnanostructure to different chemical substances are presented to show the change in the selectivity of the sensor by the coating.\nDiscussions are made on the importance of sample collection for the sensor to attain sensitive chemical detection on a mobile\nrobot.
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