MesSBAR—Multicopter and Instrumentation for Air Quality Research

Fit-for-purpose WWTP unmanned aerial systems: A game changer towards an integrated and sustainable management strategy

In the ongoing Anthropocene era, air quality monitoring constitutes a primary axis of European and international policies for all sectors, including Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTPs). Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) with proper sensing equipment provide an edge technology for air quality and odor monitoring. In addition, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry has been used in civil engineering, environmental (water) quality assessment and lately for industrial facilities monitoring. This study constitutes a systematic review of the late advances and limitations of germane equipment and implementations. Despite their unassailable flexibility and efficiency, the employment of the aforementioned technologies in WWTP remote monitoring is yet sparse, partial, and concerns only particular aspects. The main finding of the review was the lack of a tailored UAS for WWTP monitoring in the literature. Therefore, to fill in this gap, we propose a fit-for-purpose remote monitoring system consisting of a UAS with a platform that would integrate all the required sensors for air quality (i.e., emissions of H2S, NH3, NOx, SO2, CH4, CO, CO2, VOCs, and PM) and odor monitoring, multispectral and thermal cameras for photogrammetric structural health monitoring (SHM) and wastewater/effluent properties (e.g., color, temperature, etc.) of a WWTP. It constitutes a novel, supreme and integrated approach to improve the sustainable management of WWTPs. Specifically, the developments that a fit-for-purpose WWTP UAS would launch, are fostering the decision-making of managers, administrations, and policymakers, both in operational conditions and in case of failures, accidents or natural disasters. Furthermore, it would significantly reduce the operational expenditure of a WWTP, ensuring personnel and population health standards, and local area sustainability.

Concepts for drone based pipeline leak detection

The quickly developing drone technology can be used efficiently in the field of pipeline leak detection. The aim of this article is to provide drone mission concepts for detecting releases from pipelines. It provides an overview of the current applications of natural gas pipeline surveys, it considers environmental conditions by plume modelling, it discusses suitable commercially available sensors, and develops concepts for routine monitoring of pipelines and short term missions for localising and identifying a known leakage. Suitable platforms depend on the particular mission and requirements concerning sensors and legislation. As an illustration, a feasibility study during a release experiment is introduced. The main challenge of this study was the variability of wind direction on a time scale of minutes, which produces considerable differences to the plume simulations. Nevertheless, the leakage rates derived from the observations are in the same order of magnitude as the emission rates. Finally the results from the modeling, the release experiment and possible drone scenarios are combined and requirements for future application derived.

The Gas Sensing Drone with the Lowered and Lifted Measurement Platform

A serious factor that limits the environmental applications of drones is the disturbance of the air pollution concentration field by the drone propulsion system. This work presents a gas-sensing drone offering measurements that are unaffected by this phenomenon. The novel development was based on the idea that, during measurements, the sensing device should be spatially separated from a zone influenced by the drone's rotors. To attain this goal, special equipment was designed that allows one to undock and lower the sensing device for measurement, lift it and dock for flight. The field experiments demonstrated the full functionality of the developed system and its superiority compared to a sensing platform mounted at the bottom of the drone. Higher measurement sensitivity and resolution were attained by lowering the sensing platform to the measurement point. This solution minimizes the rotor flow effect, ground effect, and pollution concentration field flattening. The test in real conditions confirmed that the designed construction assures drone stability. The presented technology may be an important step in developing effective mobile measurement tools that allow one to reach poorly accessible or dangerous places and perform measurements at a low cost and with high efficiency.