Evaluation of Selected Algorithms for Air Pollution Source Localisation Using Drones

Grzegorz Suchanek, Jerzy Wołoszyn and Andrzej Gołaś
Additional contact information
Grzegorz Suchanek: Department of Power Systems and Environmental Protection Facilities, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Jerzy Wołoszyn: Department of Power Systems and Environmental Protection Facilities, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Andrzej Gołaś: Department of Power Systems and Environmental Protection Facilities, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Krakow, Poland

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-19

Abstract: Polluted air causes enormous damage to human health. There is a high demand to find a solution for locating the places of illegal waste incineration due to the persistent smog problem. The use of multi-rotor drones for that purpose has now become one of the important research topics. The aim of the work was to check the possibility of using simple algorithms to search for the source of pollution. The algorithms that require low computing power, which may be part of the robot’s measurement and the control system’s internal software, were considered. The focus was on building a system based on a single robot that independently searches an area of a certain size. The simulation of the accuracy and scalability of the three different search algorithms was analysed for areas up to 200 m × 200 m. Two multi-rotor robots were prepared for the fieldwork. The validation of the two selected algorithms was carried out in outdoor environmental conditions. The fieldwork tests were carried out in areas with a maximum size of 100 m × 100 m. The obtained results were different, in particular on the wind speed and direction and the intensity of the pollution source. The random influence of these factors can verify the operation of the proposed system in practical applications. The difference between the true and the position of the source indicated by the robot was up to 15 m. That difference depended on the mutual arrangement of the measurement points and the pollution source location.

Keywords: drone; pollution source localisation; particulate matter; drone measurement system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/5/3049/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/5/3049/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:5:p:3049-:d:764635

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().