Adaptive Air Monitoring with a Combination of Solar Glider and Drone

Different human activities while emitting different gases over years cause air. In this paper, we will present an autonomous system consisting of a solar glider and a drone for monitoring different classes of air pollutants in cities. Aerial vehicles will carry a payload of different mobile sensors i.e., particle analyzer, CO2, CO, SO2, O2, NOx, humidity, temperature, air pressure wind velocity sensors, and infrared cameras. Our idea is to have the solar glider flying over the city at higher altitudes. When detecting areas of interest, it will send a launch code to the drone in the vicinity to conduct 3D mapping of pollutant concentrations in that area. The data are continuously sent to the database on a server. When analyzed the data can be accessed by several types of applications in real-time. Most current air quality monitoring solutions are expensive static-based solutions that are too expensive to deploy in the entire solution to monitor pollution and indicate some harmful impacts. It is also impossible to constantly cover all different points and locations of impact to protect human health and the ecosystem. Our proposal of an adaptable mobile air monitoring solution is much cheaper, yet consistent and energy efficient, and could be easily customized to other needs. Our results show the possibility of clear visualizations of different pollutants.