About a year ago I first saw Ken McGary of Nerds for Nature present on the potential use cases for sUAV and ecological sensor data collection.
.Last weekend we ran the first in a series of tests to explore the feasibility of using UAV to test water quality. Over the past month or so this has gone from some drawings on a napkin to a proof of concept that performed near perfectly last weekend at a bioblitz at lake Merritt in Oakland CA. A better story of all that went on was in Scientific American.
We built a sensor array that had a thermal probe and pH sensor for our first trial.subsequent tests will incorporate salinity and dissolved oxygen sensors.
One of the first challenges was to get the copter to land and remain stationary for 30-45 seconds while the sensors obtained their readings. "Condition_delay" is still in development but through some experimentation we found "loiter_time" with no GPS or Altitude info to do the trick.
Our AeroTestra,specially outfitted amphibious multi rotor, autonomously took off, navigated to four separate way points collecting temperatures and pH levels at each, then returned to the home position to finish the routine. This initial test was all done a few meters off the surface of the lake and only 20-30 meters from the dock with me ready to assume manual control if things went south.
While crop inspection and 3D mapping and survey will prove to be the major use cases for this technology in the next few years, I feel like the wide open frontier of this type of research and sensor integration will open worlds of possibilities and feel very excited to be a part of it.
My sincere thanks to everyone involved including the ArduCopter developers, 3D Robotics, and Nerds 4 Nature.
We will update with progress as it develops. Perhaps,come June, we will test the water in the Boulder Reservoir.:)
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