Embedded Files
NOAA air sampling tower. Source here.
Background
Background
The Keeling and Weiss Labs at Scripps Institute of Oceanography are world renowned for their work in tracking the rise of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere over the past few years. The Keeling lab is especially known for the Keeling Curve (below) which was integral in showing the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is crucial that air samples collected by these labs are uncontaminated by local emissions so they must be sampled at high altitudes to rule this out. This is currently done by building large, expensive, and permanent air sampling towers (example from NOAA on left). Our project uses a drone as a "mobile" sampling tower that can fly a tube high into the air to collect the needed samples.
Our Project
Our Project
The drone selected by our sponsor is the DJI Matrice 300 RTK (shown on left). It will hold the end of a 30m long tube and while the other end will be connected to a pump system in the ground to pull air into the sample flasks. Once these flasks are filled, they are tested using specially designed fixtures created by the lab. Pictured below is the pump system that the tubing will connect to (left) and the air sample flasks connected to the lab's testing fixture (right).
Ground station air pump system
Air sample flasks being tested
Project Objectives
Project Objectives
Fixture to mount to drone and hold tubing in location where air will be well mixed
Clear documentation and instructions for experimental operations
Equip drone with additional sensors to collect air properties during sampling
Establish communication system to send live data back to researchers during experiment
Final Design
Final Design
Fixture
Fabrication Method: 3D Printing which allowed for rapid prototyping and open source access for research implementation
Materials: PLA, Nylon Carbon Fiber
Electronics
Fabrication Method: Lasercut acrylic plating to mount directly on the drone. Design is modular so can add more or less “levels” depending on sensor set up
Drone Flying + Documentation
Training Flight at Drones Made Easy (San Diego, CA)
Practice Flights at UCSD Aerodrome (La Jolla, CA)
Experiment Flight at SIO Pier (La Jolla, CA)
Multimedia documentation to convey safe usage of drone system
Communication
Live data can be sent to the ground through SSH access to the Raspberry Pi from a device on the ground using the on board wifi on the Pi.
Page updated
Report abuse