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Description
The project aims at developing a system for collecting air quality data with high spatial and temporal resolution covering levels from the low troposphere to the lower stratosphere. It addresses at least: low emissions, pollution from industry, and from natural sources. This data is necessary to warn occupants of areas affected by exceeding pollution and to control pollution and migration of aerosols across the countries.
The following issues will be developed and implemented:
• A methodology of collecting air quality data with high spatial and temporal resolution, processing and analyzing them, and then presenting to end-users.
• A lightweight and energy efficient measuring system capable of satisfying the methodology requirements.
• A UAV of very long (or even unlimited) flight duration, capable of sampling pollution data in the range from the low troposphere up to 20-22 km altitude.
• An autopilot and a mission planning system capable of optimizing and on-line updating flight plans.
• IT system for data storing, processing, analyzing, and making it available to approved users.
The result will be a fully-operable demonstrator of the system, tested and validated in two different environments: the Silesian Metropoly in Poland, and on Svalbard in Norway.
These results will be valuable for international applications by governmental or scientific institutions targeted on controlling air pollution and migration of aerosols spanning from low to very high altitudes in the atmosphere.
Added values to this project: donor partner - its experience in the application of UAVs for collecting data in polar regions, and in development of IT systems for collecting massive data; SUT – an experience in implementing robot-based monitoring systems, and development of autopilots and flight planning software; eLab – a concept of High Altitude Long Endurance energy-efficient UAV; UW – methodology of collecting pollution data and developing portable measurement systems.
Summary of project results
In the project “Long-endurance UAV for collecting air quality data with high spatial and temporal resolutions” the goal was to develop a HALE (High-Altitude Long Endurance) UAV as a carrier for the measuring equipment for profiling atmospheric pollution, which flies following the optimal flight path allowing low energy consumption and accomplishment of the measuring task and transmitting data to the ground and presenting it to the mission operator.
In the LEPolUAV project individual objectives concerning the development and operation of the individual elements of the HALE system (hardware and software), as well as their successful integration into an UAV model have been achieved. Also, the completion of a prototype and the confirmation of its flight capability, even without achieving the operational objectives of the flight, can be considered as partial achievement of this specific project objective.
The unmanned aircraft presents important innovative features, in terms of its air pollution sampling capabilities and the ability to create optimal flight paths and adjustments in real time based on the measurements taken. The long flight duration and high altitude characteristics of the vehicle are also important features, giving the potential applications in areas, such as weather monitoring, detecting plant invasions in the Arctic environment, and possibly contributing to other environmental projects
Summary of bilateral results
The project''s contribution to strengthening bilateral relations between Polish and Norwegian partners is significant. They plan to submitt a joint proposal to the HORIZON programme and are planning other long-term collaborations to continue research on this and other topics, such as the detection of invasive species in the Arctic environment.