SENSORS Development of an Autonomous Multi-Rotor Copter for Air Quality Monitoring Nathan T Rose, Michael van den Bossche, Stephan F.J. De Wekker Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia INTRODUCTION CURRENT AIR QUALITY MEASUREMENTS NEW APPROACH: HEXACOPTER Recent advances in sensor technology and open- source electronics have promoted the use of low- cost sensors for air quality monitoring. At the same time, unmanned aerial vehicles are being developed, allowing for controlled vertical profiling of the lower part of the atmosphere. This poster describes the ongoing development in our group of a hexacopter to monitor EPA criteria pollutants.  Currently, surface air quality data are collected using air quality monitoring (AQM) stations.  Vertical profiles in the lower hundreds of meters of the atmosphere are collected using tall towers with gas intakes at various heights, or with instrumented manned aircraft.  Towers and AQM stations provide limited spatial resolution; manned aircraft flights are expensive and only done intermittently. The copter will be outfitted with sensors to measure the following four criteria pollutants: ELECTRONICS Seeeduino Stalker Vs 2.3 Arduino based SD-card storage Interfaces with sensors Acknowledgments. This research was partly funded by the Office of Naval Research (MURI) Award N , the NSF (CAREER) award ATM , and the Appalachian Stewardship Foundation grant Multi-rotor copters, such as our hexacopter, have many advantages for air quality vertical profiling: Vertical take-off and landing. Ability to hover at a fixed height. Cheap compared to tower or manned aircraft. Easy to operate. Can fly in a wide range of atmospheric conditions. Xbee Series 1 Wireless, short-range communication Data transmission INITIAL RESULTS: WIND Red = tower measurements using Gill Windmaster Black – measurements on copter using Decagon DS-2 sonic Red and black lines connect 10-s block averaged data points An instrumented multi-rotor copter has been designed and developed in the past year and the large potential of these copters in boundary layer meteorological research has been demonstrated. Sensors have been tested and calibrated for use on the copter. The next step will be to do vertical profile measurements with the air quality sensors. SUMMARY Presented at: ISARRA 2015 University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK. Insert picture of AQE shield & Seeeduino board. PollutantSensorRange O 3 (Ozone)MICS2610~ ppbv COMICS5525~ ppmv NO 2 MICS2710~ ppbv PM2.5Shinyei PPD42NS The copter is equipped with sensors for meteorological measurements: PropertySensorJustification WindDecagon DS-2Accurate at low wind speeds, small & light-weight TemperatureOmega 44203High accuracy, fast response HumiditySHT75High accuracy PressureBMP085Sufficient accuracy Insert picture and description for GPS Insert new picture of copter?  good agreement in wind speed- and direction measurements between copter and tower measurements.  Good correlation between low- cost ozone sensor and VDEQ instrumentation INITIAL RESULTS: AIR QUALITY SENSOR CALIBRATIONS  Vertical profiles of ozone from 10 – 125m.  Ascend rate: 0.5 m/s – 1.0 m/s.  Frequency : 0.17 Hz.