Abstract
The deployment of small uncrewed aerial vehicles (sUAVs) for volcanological applications has grown over the last decade, mainly attributed to the development of affordable, smaller, and versatile platforms. However, the use of sUAVs in active volcanic regions is a challenging operation conducted under extreme environmental conditions. The here reported unsuccessful deployment of an sUAV at Stromboli volcano shows that the aircraft functionality was impaired by airborne volcanic ash, which led to an uncontrolled landing of the aircraft. Laboratory analyses confirmed the presence of volcanic material inside the motors, which is attributed to have caused motor blockage of the sUAV on Stromboli volcano while the aircraft was engulfed by a rising ash plume. Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the interaction between volcanic ash and an sUAV motor-propeller assemble. The experiments reproduced the incorporation of ash-sized particles into the motor, proving that volcanic ash can enter the rotating motor while the sUAV is airborne. This shows that ash ingestion into the sUAV at Stromboli volcano resulted in operational failure. These findings shall aid in developing advanced and reliable sUAVs that can extend current deployment opportunities in volcanic environments.
Highlights
The last decade saw an exponential development and deployment of small uncrewed aerial vehicles for volcanic monitoring applications (Jordan, 2019; James et al, 2020)
Any type of ground-based or aerial monitoring and data collection activity in proximity of active volcanoes is a challenging operation conducted under extreme environmental conditions. small uncrewed aerial vehicles (sUAVs) are exposed to a wide range of environmental stress factors when deployed in volcanic areas, such as strong winds, high temperatures as well as incandescent volcanic particles, corrosive gas and vapors injected into the atmosphere
This study presents a detailed reconstruction of the events that led to the malfunction of a sUAV deployed on Stromboli volcano
Summary
The last decade saw an exponential development and deployment of small uncrewed aerial vehicles (sUAVs) for volcanic monitoring applications (Jordan, 2019; James et al, 2020). These remotely piloted aircrafts with a total weight of less than 25 kg (FAA, 2016) aided in bridging the gap between satellite remote sensing and classic fieldwork (Giordan et al, 2018). A limited number of studies report on sUAV incidents and limitations when deployed in volcanic settings (Jordan, 2015; Jordan, 2019; James et al, 2020; Wood et al, 2020).
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