A terrestrial robot has been deployed to measure High-Resolution Surface Methane Emissions at ReGen Monterey Landfill
- Youngseok Jo
- Nov 25, 2025
- 1 min read
January 30, 2024
On January 30, 2024, a UC Berkeley postdoctoral researcher (Youngseok Jo) initiated a pioneering methane emissions monitoring campaign at the ReGen Monterey Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill using an advanced robotic platform.
The campaign was led by one researcher, who integrated Tunable Diode Laser (TDL) methane sensors capable of detecting concentrations at 1 ppm resolution, mounted on a quadruped robot commonly used in industrial and environmental inspection missions. The system was further enhanced with a Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GNSS receiver, delivering spatial positioning accuracy at the 1 cm scale to precisely map methane emission origins at the landfill surface.
This deployment represents one of the first field implementations of a terrestrial quadruped robot-based, multi-sensor stack approach for surface methane quantification at an active MSW landfill. The robotic system will conduct autonomous, ground-level scanning across heterogeneous waste cover regions, targeting methane hotspots that are often under-resolved by conventional static chambers or affected by manpower limitations.
The study forms part of an ongoing multi-scale methane emissions assessment initiative, combining terrestrial robotics, aerial platforms, satellites, artificial intelligence, and remote sensing fusion to upgrade landfill methane measurement toward operational intelligence for mitigation, verification, and environmental decision-making.
With this field launch, UC Berkeley and collaborators continue to push the boundaries of methane monitoring, bridging the gap between emerging robotic mobility and high-fidelity greenhouse gas sensing in critical climate infrastructure.
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