Gas-Drone: Portable gas sensing system on UAVs for gas leakage localization

Volatile chemical concentration and gas leakage recognition can be crucial in environmental monitoring for risk assessment. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to measure spatially distributed gas concentration is of great interest because it allows a Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) of the volatiles. This field is quite recent and, so far, few efforts have been dedicated to the design of integrated sensing instruments that focus on the optimization of crucial features as weight, dimension and energy autonomy, as important as selectivity and sensitivity of sensors on board UAVs. The proposed Gas Sensing System (GSS) is a fully autonomous board based on a 32bit MCU with 30min autonomy (on its own battery), data storing, wireless connectivity for real-time feedback and embeds a custom micro-machined MOX (Metal Oxide) sensor. This system can be mounted on any UAV thanks to its small dimensions and light weight. Experiments demonstrate that the sensing performance is not impaired by the air flow during the flight and we are able to spatially describe the volatile concentration.