Validation of a small flying e-nose system for air pollutants control: A plume detection case study from an agricultural machine

摘要

The interest in using small electrochemical sensors, also known as e-noses, with unmanned aerial vehicles is growing fast. While there are already some attempts to combine these two technologies, there is also evidence that the state-of-the-art is not mature enough, and there are still many research questions to answer. A novel small flying e-nose system configuration is proposed for detecting NO₂ and other hazardous chemical compounds outdoors. The small flying e-nose system is composed of a DJI Matrix 100 and a set of AlphaSense electrochemical sensors. The main contribution of this work is the experimental validation of the system for detecting the NO₂ plume coming from agricultural machinery. Evaluation and verification tests were conducted in a 100 m² area, over 10 flight hours, during two days, and under different environment conditions.