{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,28]],"date-time":"2026-01-28T10:20:01Z","timestamp":1769595601426,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":12,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2013,10,9]],"date-time":"2013-10-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1381276800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Maintenance tasks are crucial for all kind of industries, especially in extensive industrial plants, like solar thermal power plants. The incorporation of robots is a key issue for automating inspection activities, as it will allow a constant and regular control over the whole plant. This paper presents an autonomous robotic system to perform pipeline inspection for early detection and prevention of leakages in thermal power plants, based on the work developed within the MAINBOT (http:\/\/www.mainbot.eu) European project. Based on the information provided by a thermographic camera, the system is able to detect leakages in the collectors and pipelines. Beside the leakage detection algorithms, the system includes a particle filter-based tracking algorithm to keep the target in the field of view of the camera and to avoid the irregularities of the terrain while the robot patrols the plant. The information provided by the particle filter is further used to command a robot arm, which handles the camera and ensures that the target is always within the image. The obtained results show the suitability of the proposed approach, adding a tracking algorithm to improve the performance of the leakage detection system.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s131013560","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2013,10,9]],"date-time":"2013-10-09T11:57:49Z","timestamp":1381319869000},"page":"13560-13574","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Thermal Tracking in Mobile Robots for Leak Inspection Activities"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Aitor","family":"Ibarguren","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"IK4-Tekniker, Calle I\u00f1aki Goenaga 5, Eibar 20600, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jorge","family":"Molina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IK4-Tekniker, Calle I\u00f1aki Goenaga 5, Eibar 20600, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Loreto","family":"Susperregi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IK4-Tekniker, Calle I\u00f1aki Goenaga 5, Eibar 20600, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"I\u00f1aki","family":"Maurtua","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IK4-Tekniker, Calle I\u00f1aki Goenaga 5, Eibar 20600, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2013,10,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Debenest, P., Guarnieri, M., Takita, K., Fukushima, E.F., Hirose, S., Tamura, K., Kimura, A., Kubokawa, H., Iwama, N., and Shiga, F. (2009, January 14\u201316). Expliner\u2014Toward a Practical Robot for Inspection of High-Voltage Lines. Cambridge, MA, USA.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-13408-1_5"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Lee, J.K., Cho, B.H., Jang, K.N., Jung, S.C., Oh, K.Y., Park, J.Y., and Kim, J.S. (2010, January 28\u201330). Development of Autonomous Cable Inspection Robot for Nuclear Power Plant. Rome, Italy."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Luk, B.L., Collie, A.A., Cooke, D.S., and Chen, S. (2005, January 1\u20132). Walking and Climbing Service Robots for Safety Inspection of Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessels. Hong Kong.","DOI":"10.1177\/002029400603900201"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Suzuki, M., Yukawa, T., Satoh, Y., and Okano, H. (2006, January 8\u201311). Mechanisms of Autonomous Pipe-Surface Inspection Robot with Magnetic Elements. Taipei.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSMC.2006.384625"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Camerini, C., Freitas, M., Langer, R.A., von Der Weid, J.P., Marnet, R., and Kubrusly, A.C. (2010, January 8\u201310). A Robot for Offshore Pipeline Inspection. Sao Paulo, Brazil.","DOI":"10.1109\/INDUSCON.2010.5740063"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Xu, J., Chen, J., Dou, L., and Liu, Z. (2010, January 13\u201314). Moving Target Detection and Tracking in FLIR Image Sequences Based on Thermal Target Modeling. Changsha, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICMTMA.2010.459"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Ionescu, C.M. (2001). MATLAB\u2014A Ubiquitous Tool for the Practical Engineer, InTech."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Padole, C.N., and Alexandre, L.A. (2010, January 19\u201321). Motion Based Particle Filter for Human Tracking with Thermal Imaging. Goa, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICETET.2010.120"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aichholzer, O., and Aurenhammer, F. (1996, January 17\u201319). Straight Skeletons for General Polygonal Figures in the Plane. Hong Kong.","DOI":"10.1007\/3-540-61332-3_144"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Doucet, A., de Freitas, N., and Gordon, N. (2001). Sequential Monte Carlo Methods in Practice, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4757-3437-9"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2592","DOI":"10.1109\/TSP.2003.816758","article-title":"Gaussian Particle Filtering","volume":"51","author":"Kotecha","year":"2003","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Signal Process"},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Liu, J.S., Chen, R., and Logvinenko, T. (2001). Sequential Monte Carlo Methods in Practice, Springer."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/13\/10\/13560\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T21:49:44Z","timestamp":1760219384000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/13\/10\/13560"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2013,10,9]]},"references-count":12,"journal-issue":{"issue":"10","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2013,10]]}},"alternative-id":["s131013560"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s131013560","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2013,10,9]]}}}