Drone Air and Water Sampling
Here's an interesting project we’ve been working on and have functional prototypes for- drone air and water sampling!
The water sampler is simple and effective, a 1 liter amber sample jar fits into a custom holder that's suspended from a load drop system. It's very effective for taking surface water samples from areas only otherwise accessible by boat.
In case of entanglement, the drop system can easily drop the whole load to keep the aircraft safe. This drop system is pretty cool, and I'm eager to see what it can do on a response! (Deliver tools? Pull lines across rivers? Pick up samples from hard to reach areas?)
The air sampler is likewise pretty simple, and effective! A custom bracket sized for a MultiRae gas monitor fits between the landing gear struts on the Skycatch Explore 2, with tubing that connects the monitor to a 3' sampling probe off the top of the aircraft. The monitor fits at an angle which allows a mounted camera to be able to turn and view the monitor's display. With image time-stamping on, taking a photo of the display logs not only the air monitoring results, but also GPS coordinates, altitude, date, time, and any other custom information. The whole setup is likely compatible with other types and brands of air monitor, and can be adapted as needed.
Both of these special tools are designed to enable a safer, faster, easier, and potentially more cost effective approach to common spill response tasks.
