Development of unmanned surface vehicle for smart water quality inspector

Effective and efficient management of water resources is becoming unprecedentedly more important nowadays due to the increasing demand from a growing population, increasing standards of living and changing supply due to climate change. Water monitoring technology has directly contributed to the effectiveness of water resource management. Traditional water measurement method, mostly done in laboratory, cannot help so much for making timely and informed decisions. The new method called Water Sensor Network can acquire and serve data in real time, but most of them are a type of fixed location platform that makes them lacking of mobility. In this paper, we present the combination of wireless water sensor technology together with unmanned surface vehicle (USV) to solve the problem. The overall system consists of water quality sensors, wireless communication system and mobility platform. The water sensors include temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), oxidation reduction potential (ORP) and electrical conductivity (EC). Software was developed using open source technology aiming at providing continuous and autonomous water quality measurement at substantially reduced cost. The integrated sensorized USV was tested to perform an autonomous mission for water quality assessment in a lake. Preliminary laboratory and field test results have demonstrated that the system has a capability to do water quality assessment mission in inland water resource. This USV can be used at various surface water spaces, such as domestic water sources, domestic water intake points and industrial water discharge points.