RP12: UAVs or aerial drones for autonomous sensor deployment and spatial water quality observations (ESR12, EXT)

The need to deploy sensors in environments unsuitable or inaccessible to humans, such as hot springs or contaminated lakes, requires a remote deployment method where the user is not exposed to the conditions experienced by the sensor. To overcome these challenges, this project will developed UAVs to deploy the sensors The goal is to explore the potential of lightweight drones for deploying small automated sensor technologies and collecting water samples (for later laboratory analysis) in environments unsuitable or inaccessible to humans. Water quality parameters, including total suspended matter and turbidity, can be observed using optical remote sensing. Therefore, a drone carrying an optically characterised and fully controlled digital camera will be used to map the spatial variations in these water quality parameters. The drones will deploy light-weight sensorized buoys which is embedded with sensors and electronics. In the first instance, the buoys will be simply dropped in water. This will be followed by complex task such as picking buoys from one place and dropping it at other desired location.