Vacek, Lukas (University of Pennsylvania), Atter, Edward (University of Pennsylvania), Rizo, Pedro (University of Pennsylvania), Nam, Brian (University of Pennsylvania), Kortvelesy, Ryan (University of Pennsylvania), Kaufman, Delaney (University of Pennsylvania), Das, Jnaneshwar (University of Pennsylvania), Kumar, Vijay (University of Pennsylvania)

Suas for Deployment and Recovery of an Environmental Sensor Probe

Scheduled for presentation during the "UAS Applications - V" (ThB4), Thursday, June 15, 2017, 15:05−15:25, Lummus Island

2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, June 13-16, 2017, Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay, Miami, FL,

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 24, 2024

Abstract

Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) are already revolutionizing agricultural and environmental monitoring through the acquisition of high-resolution multi-spectral imagery on-demand. However, in order to accurately understand various complex environmental and agricultural processes, it is often necessary to collect physical samples of pests, pathogens, and insects from the field for ex-situ analysis. In this paper, we describe a sUAS for autonomous deployment and recovery of a novel environmental sensor probe. We present the UAS software and hardware stack, and a probe design that can be adapted to collect a variety of environmental samples and can be transported autonomously for off-site analysis. Our team participated in an NSF-sponsored student unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) challenge, where we used our sUAS to deploy and recover a scale-model mosquito trap outdoors. Results from indoor and field trials are presented, and the challenges experienced in detecting and docking with the probe in outdoor conditions are discussed.