A customized drone for ocean and atmospheric measurements and its performances

Abstract

Drones- Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs)- have become more significant across the world for a wide range of commercial and terrestrial defense applications in recent years. The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT)- Ministry of Earth Sciences (MOES)- is exploring UAVs with a specific focus on maritime applications. NIOT has customized a heavy lift category drone, operable in marine environments and capable of withstanding coastal wind conditions of up to 40 kmph. It can lift and carry an instrumentation payload of 10 kg, conduct ocean data collection, and even take seawater samplings. The 10 kg payload of the UAV might hold a Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) sensor, a programmable sea water sampler, and a multi-parameter sensor (MPS) for ocean data collections, and a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) device integrated with a high frame rate camera system for coastal mapping and digital elevation model (DEM) developmental applications. The customized hexacopter UAV is capable of withstanding winds of up to 10 m/s and features a waterproof IPX7 thruster with a maximum thrust of 153 N per axis. The UAV system is also interfaced with a Global Positioning System (GPS), a barometric pressure sensor, a compass, a highly accurate gyroscope, a 15 MP surveillance camera, and an accelerometer sensor connected to a reliable cube orange flight controller module with a redundant 32-bit controller through a serial peripheral interface (SPI). The drone structure and frame is composed of carbon fiber composites to provide an excellent weight-to-strength ratio. This paper presents the outcomes of an initial field test, carried out to ensure the drone’s suitability for various marine applications with intended payloads ranging from 5 - 10 kg weight, including coastal demonstrations and ocean data collections performed at Nellore (Andra Pradesh) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu) coastal waters. Highlights A drone is customised to with stand elevated wind conditions of coastal regions Design is fully flexible meeting the ease of transport from one location to other Highly stable mechanical design to sustain winds of up to 45 KMPH Redundant flight control mechanism is evolved to assure fail safe operations of drone Drone built in with redundant GPS module to avoid scenario like NO Geo-reference at any time Design is type certified and UIN registered with DGCA - India