Drones for Water Quality Monitoring

Due to rapid urbanization, water resources have various parts to play in society. But, the allocation of these resources to residential or industrial sectors is dependent on water quality standards and their continuous monitoring. While sensors located in reservoirs are useful, there is often a need to inspect new locations and bring new sensory information onto the table, for example, water toxicity in public areas with access for swimming. UAVs equipped with specialized hardware are able to deliver this real-time monitoring with advanced and ever-evolving sensors for various parameters such as pH, temperature, conductivity, particle concentration, and dissolved oxygen. For tasks that need to be performed using sampling, the UAVs can bring back samples to the shore for analysis to be performed in a laboratory. It can do this repeatedly, reliably, and autonomously.

This data can increase precision and sampling rate and provide more targeted solutions.

The Fly4Future team has developed an innovative drone that is both waterproof and fully autonomous, making it an exceptional UAV in the field offering a range of functionalities tailored specifically for maritime applications. Our state-of-the-art system can perform precise landing and take off on marine vessels and water surfaces, even in harsh conditions such as strong winds and high waves. This enables us to relay the samples to a vessel safely in deteriorated weather conditions.

Additionally, our system allows for efficient deployment and collection of smart sensory buoys, facilitating various activities such as water sampling as well as surface and shallow water monitoring with a modular sensory stack. The sensory stack may consist of smart cameras, multi-spectral cameras, and 3D lidars – all working together seamlessly to provide comprehensive data collection.

To ensure reliable communication in challenging environments, our solution features a resilient multi-modal communication device. It incorporates UVDAR technology for enhanced situational awareness, long-range radio capability for extended reach, and LTE support for seamless data transmission. Additionally, a standard vision based approach is also available as a fallback such that even with no communication, landings can be achieved in tough conditions. By combining these advanced features, our solution optimizes operations in aquatic environments while providing accurate data collection capabilities in real-time.

The F4F drone is equipped with floats for smooth movement on both water surfaces and marine vessels.

Waterproof drone from F4F can conserve energy and stay deployed while actively serving as a communication relay/hub for a mesh network.

The F4F drone boasts a large computing capacity for precise data processing and analysis.