UAV Intelligent Chemical Multisensor Payload for Networked and Impromptu Gas Monitoring Tasks

Abstract

This electronic Air quality is nowadays a primary concern in several cities. More generally pollutant and toxic gases continuously, incidentally or purposedly released are now considered to be extremely relevant for their severe adverse health effects to exposed citizens. In this view, low cost smart chemical multisensors are arising as a reliable source for indicative data on Air Quality. Low cost UAVs are versatile platforms capable to host playloads integrating multi sensor technologies for short term, mobile monitoring tasks. The recently proposed tethered UAV platforms can be deemed as interesting solutions to build and rapidly deploy impromptu networks of air quality analyzers for short-term and focused environmental monitoring actions. In this work, we propose the integration of the ENEA MONICA multisensor platform as a measurement payload for the TopView SAV-ES UAV. The prototype has been flown on board of the SAV-ES platform for a test flight targeting the measurement of a plume generated with a brushwood controlled fire. The functional proof of concept flight have confirmed the possibility to use MONICA as a measurement payload for the targeted platform.