Low-Cost Sensors Based PM Profiling Using Aerial Platform

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have evolved as unique mobility tools expected to overcome some of the shortcomings of traditional static surveillance approaches. This method is practical for gathering information on the vertical atmosphere, is easy to manage, and is affordable, among other things. It also makes it simple to access any complicated place. Nevertheless, despite its potential in the field, setting up the best sensor-drone pairings might be challenging. In some circumstances, the sensor may create electromagnetic interference to the drone's GPS, preventing it from flying. Additionally, the wind created by drone propellers can mix the air, drive out particles, or draw in new ones, affecting air quality measurements. This study intends to test and examine the effectiveness, viability, and challenges of utilising a drone to measure air quality, with a focus on the effect of propellers on PM concentration monitoring. This study offers a data-gathering system and its coupling into a UAV to enable real-time PM profiling. This study also focuses on how airborne particles are distributed at various elevations. Utilising LoRa technology, the gathered data is sent to the cloud for processing and storage. In a later section of the paper, a decision tree-based intelligence is created to optimise the flight parameters by considering a group of attributes upon which categorisation rules are established. Then successfully conducts flight tests for real-time source tracking and monitoring using this intelligent system.