Compensatory methods for the odor concentration in an electronic nose system using software and hardware

Compensatory methods for changes in odor concentration of a target sample in an electronic nose system have been investigated. An automatic sampler that automatically adjusts the odor concentration of the sample has been developed. The sampler consists of a mass dow controller, two electromagnetic valves and two stainless steel buffers equipped with two sensors for monitoring the odor concentration. The odor concentration of the sample is kept at a certain level by controlling the valves and the mass flow controller according to feed back signals of the monitoring sensors. Using this sampler, identification of unstable volatile samples was successfully performed, regardless of the state of the samples and the environmental conditions. A software-based compensatory method was also examined. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.