Self-validating sensor technology and its application in artificial olfaction: A review

Automatic detection devices rely on accurate and reliable sensor readings, which is a prerequisite for their good running. Self-validating sensor technology that realizes sensor operating status estimation and data validation can provide an intelligent functional framework for sensor status monitoring to improve the reliability and maintainability of the system. After nearly thirty years of development, self-validating sensors have achieved numerous theoretical and application results. In particular, the stability and reliability of gas chemical sensors in the field of artificial olfaction have been a bottleneck that limits the industrialization of the electronic nose system. Obviously, self-validating sensor technology exactly provides a potential solution for artificial olfaction application. This paper aims to systematically review the current development and typical applications of self- validating sensor technology, summarize the implementation methods to its different functional modules as well and demonstrate its potential application value in artificial olfaction.