Research / Controlled sniffing
Research pillar 02

Moving air through the system in a repeatable way.

A machine cannot smell well if air reaches the sensor randomly. It needs a controlled breath — a repeatable path from sample to chamber and back to a clean baseline.

What we research

Airflow, chamber shape, pump timing, clean-air purging, and recovery time often decide whether a smell reading is useful at all. Aeralyte treats sampling, sensing, and AI as one system — and puts more early effort into active sampling than into exotic sensors.

Technical terms: active sampling, micro-pumps, valves, sensor chamber, purge cycle, flow control.

The path

Clean-air baselineEstablish a reference before each exposure.
Valve switchSelect clean path or sample environment.
Pump + flow controlDraw the sample at a controlled rate.
Sensor chamberExpose the array; record the response.
Purge & recoveryReturn to baseline; check repeatability.

Where this stands

Why context is first-class dataOn the bench now

Every run records its sampling context — room volume, ventilation, pump flow, sample period — alongside the sensor stream, and the analysis is built so context can explain a reading but never substitute for the sniff. Characterizing real airflow — pump timing, purge, and recovery — is the next bench work.

Run metadata schema — fields recorded with every run

room_volume_m3Enclosure or room volume
ventilation_achAir changes per hour
pump_flow_lpmSample draw rate
sample_period_sSeconds between samples

Further reading