Applicability of unmanned aerial systems for leak detection

Abstract

In light of recent U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) notices, there is a surge in the research and development of the ‘micro’ class sUAS for commercial purposes. Natural gas production and distribution companies in particular are making an effort to develop aerial leak detection methods with sUAS. These efforts require a comprehensive evaluation of sUAS capabilities and the environmental disturbances introduced by the sUAS in order to accurately utilize data collected via onboard in situ methane gas sensors. Though many commercially available sUAS are on the market, the shape and arrangement of any system has significant impact on the aircraft's ability to accurately sense gas leaks. This paper explores using a 3DRobotics Iris+ quadcopter for gas sensing, paying particular attention to propeller disturbances introduced by the sUAS. The paper defines certain operating conditions in which the influence of propellers can be ignored. These results can be used in gas leak applications by examining the overall airflow dynamics of a commercially available rotary sUAS.