Evaluation of Selected Algorithms for Air Pollution Source Localisation Using Drones

Polluted air causes enormous damage to human health. There is a high demand to find a solution for locating the places of illegal waste incineration due to the persistent smog problem. The use of multi-rotor drones for that purpose has now become one of the important research topics. The aim of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2022-03, Vol.14 (5), p.3049
Main Authors: Suchanek, Grzegorz, Wołoszyn, Jerzy, Gołaś, Andrzej
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air pollution
Algorithms
Carbon dioxide
Control algorithms
Control systems
Damage localization
Environmental conditions
Environmental health
Environmental impact
Environmental testing
Fieldwork
Incineration
Outdoor air quality
Pollutants
Pollution sources
Robots
Rotors
Search algorithms
Sensors
Smog
Waste disposal
Wind speed
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Summary:Polluted air causes enormous damage to human health. There is a high demand to find a solution for locating the places of illegal waste incineration due to the persistent smog problem. The use of multi-rotor drones for that purpose has now become one of the important research topics. The aim of the work was to check the possibility of using simple algorithms to search for the source of pollution. The algorithms that require low computing power, which may be part of the robot’s measurement and the control system’s internal software, were considered. The focus was on building a system based on a single robot that independently searches an area of a certain size. The simulation of the accuracy and scalability of the three different search algorithms was analysed for areas up to 200 m × 200 m. Two multi-rotor robots were prepared for the fieldwork. The validation of the two selected algorithms was carried out in outdoor environmental conditions. The fieldwork tests were carried out in areas with a maximum size of 100 m × 100 m. The obtained results were different, in particular on the wind speed and direction and the intensity of the pollution source. The random influence of these factors can verify the operation of the proposed system in practical applications. The difference between the true and the position of the source indicated by the robot was up to 15 m. That difference depended on the mutual arrangement of the measurement points and the pollution source location.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su14053049