UAV-Based Wildland Fire Air Toxics Data Collection and Analysis

Abstract

Smoke plumes emitted from wildland-urban interface (WUI) wildfires contain toxic chemical substances that are harmful to human health, mainly due to the burning of synthetic components. Accurate measurement of these air toxics is necessary for understanding their impacts on human health. However, air pollution is typically measured using ground-based sensors, manned airplanes, or satellites, which all provide low-resolution data. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have the potential to provide high-resolution spatial and temporal data due to their ability to hover in specific locations and maneuver with precise trajectories in 3-D space. This study investigates the use of an octocopter UAV, equipped with a customized air quality sensor package and a volatile organic compound (VOC) air sampler, for the purposes of collecting and analyzing air toxics data from wildfire plumes. The UAV prototype developed has been successfully tested during several prescribed fires conducted by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). Data from these experiments were analyzed with emphasis on the relationship between the air toxics measured and the different types of vegetation/fuel burnt. BTEX compounds were found to be more abundant for hardwood burning compared to grassland burning, as expected.

A Control-Theoretic Spatio-Temporal Model for Wildfire Smoke Propagation Using UAV-Based Air Pollutant Measurements

“…Table 1 outlines the various sensors used in our air quality sensor package and their specifications. Our previous works include technical details on the UAV platform as well as the air quality sensor package [12].…”

“…Low-cost UAVs have been utilized in a broad range of applications [7,8], including remote chemical sensing [9,10] and modeling [11]. In our previous work, we developed a UAV and air quality sensor package for monitoring wildfire air toxins [12]. The total cost of the system was around $2000 and this cost can be further reduced.…”

A Review on the State of the Art in Copter Drones and Flight Control Systems

“…These configurations offer several advantages over quadcopters, primarily related to increased stability, payload capacity, and redundancy. What follows is an exploration of the use and advantages of drones with multiple rotors [ 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ].…”

“…Redundancy and Safety. Hexacopters and octocopters offer redundancy in case of a rotor failure [ 61 , 62 ]. If one or more rotors malfunction, the remaining rotors can compensate, enabling the drone to maintain stability and land safely.…”

“…As well as quadcopters, hexa- and octocopters might be found in a variety of applications where increased reliability and operability are needed. Selected areas of application are listed below [ 59 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ].…”