Team conducted Integrated Robotic and Aerial Methane Field Campaign at ReGen Monterey Landfill

June 3-6, 2024

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/566427_944815c373cd4e7899a8595af1593454/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

The team conducted a comprehensive 4-day, field campaigns at the ReGen Monterey MSW Landfill from June 3 to June 6, 2024.

Project collaborator Carbon Mapper also performed high-altitude surface methane emission measurements using aircraft, capturing plume-scale emissions and providing complementary, regional-level emission perspectives. In parallel, UC Berkeley deployed a quadruped terrestrial robotic inspection platform equipped with Tunable Diode Laser (TDL) methane sensors with 1-ppm concentration resolution and an RTK-GNSS positioning module with 1-cm spatial accuracy, enabling precise surface-level methane quantification and hotspot localization across heterogeneous landfill cover conditions. Simultaneously, a drone fitted with multispectral and thermal imaging systems was operated to characterize surface composition, temperature anomalies, and cover system variability, key drivers influencing methane emission dynamics.

All collected datasets will support the next phase of the study, where AI-enabled spatial correlation, cross-platform sensor fusion, and emission pattern learning will be applied. The project will further evaluate multi-scale data coherence and correlation through direct comparison with Carbon Mapper’s aerial measurements, enabling robust cross-scale methane intelligence.

This field initiative will mark a shift from manual static sampling toward autonomous, mobile, intelligence-first methane emission characterization, contributing to real-world mitigation verification, environmental compliance, and climate-driven operational decision frameworks.