Unmanned aerial gas leakage localization and mapping using microdrones

Abstract

We present an autonomous-mobile gas detection system to assess the measurement of specific gas concentrations in a wide range of outdoor applications. This is especially of interest in those harsh environments where it is impractical or uneconomical to install a fixed array of gas sensors. The system is able to work in potentially hazardous emissions areas - toxic gas leakages - in completely secure working conditions for the operators. Used as payload on a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), it can provide gas measurements with adaptive and high resolution sampling rates in accordance to gas concentration and carrier speed. Each measurement is associated with the location provided by the embedded GPS module. Remarkable features are the small size, the low power consumption and costs, compared to traditional systems. Finally, we presents a novel approach to optimize the speed of the vehicle and the system power consumption based on gas sampling frequency, which allows lifetime maximization and leakage detection reliability.