Application of a customizable sensor platform to detection of atmospheric gases by UAS

Abstract

The dramatic reduction in the cost of consumer unmanned aerial systems (UAS) presents an opportunity for widespread adoption of UAS across several established areas of study. We present the development of a sensor prototyping platform designed to be accessible to a wide variety of industrial, academic, and hobbyist users. We also present a low-cost gas sensor array designed and fabricated using this development platform. Use of common low-cost ceramic metal-oxide gas sensors on a UAS required the inclusion of several supplemental compensation sensors, as well as the development of hardware to mitigate non-ideal impacts of UAS motion on the sensors. The system was tested at a private wetland in Western Whatcom County, WA during autumn 2017 in an effort to detect and geographically map potential methane hotspots, as well as test the development platform. While unable to detect hotspots within a 10-meter radius, flights conducted at 1 m/s provided more consistent detection than those flown at 3 m/s. Further work is required to mitigate non-ideal effects and improve the utility of a low-cost system for data collection by UAS. The sensor development platform, however, successfully supported this test and is suitable for further prototyping.