1st Edition

Smart Sensing with Digital Twins Methane Emission Source Determination with sUAS

By Derek Hollenbeck, YangQuan Chen Copyright 2026
222 Pages 84 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

222 Pages 84 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

This book explores the innovative use of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS)—commonly known as drones—for methane emissions monitoring (i.e., detection, localization, and quantification) by introducing smart sensing frameworks and digital twin technology. Based on the concept of smart sensing, which combines mobile sensor data with physics-based models to provide actionable and timely... Read more

Section I: From Detection to Quantification: sUAS-based Methane
Sensing Techniques  
1. The Methane Sensing Problem  2. Emission Source Detection   3. Emission Source Localization   4. Emission Source Quantification   5. Case Studies: LDAQ with sUAS  Section II: Embedding Smartness to the Emission Source Determination Problem Solutions  6. Digital Twin Framework  7. Case Studies: Digital Twins   8. Smart Sensing, Sensor Placement, and the Observability Gramian   9. Case Studies: Smart Sensing   10. Conclusions and Best Practices

Biography

Derek Hollenbeck earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2023 at the University of California, Merced. His research interests are in digital twins, fluid mechanics, controls, fractional calculus, and cyber physical systems using small unmanned aerial systems with applications in methane leak detection and quantification.

YangQuan Chen is a professor at the University of California Merced, US. His research interests include mechatronics for sustainability, digital twins, small multi-UAV, applied fractional calculus. His recent publication with CRC Press includes Fractional Calculus for Skeptics I: The Fractal Paradigm.