Off-shore and underwater sampling of aquatic environments with the aerial-aquatic drone MEDUSA
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Monitoring of aquatic habitats for water quality and biodiversity requires regular sampling, often in off-shore locations and underwater. Such sampling is commonly performed manually from research vessels, or if autonomous, is constrained to permanent installations. Consequentially, high frequency ecological monitoring, such as for harmful algal blooms, are limited to few sites and/or temporally infrequent. Here, we demonstrate the use of MEDUSA, an Unmanned Aerial-Aquatic Vehicle which is capable of performing underwater sampling and inspection at up to 10 m depth, and is composed of a multirotor platform, a tether management unit and a tethered micro Underwater Vehicle. The system is validated in the task of vertical profiling of Chlorophyll-a levels in freshwater systems by means of a custom solid sample filtering mechanism. This mechanism can collect up to two independent samples per mission by pumping water through a pair of glass-fibre GF/F filters. Chlorophyll levels measured from the solid deposits on the filters are consistent and on par with traditional sampling methods, highlighting the potential of using UAAVs to sample aquatic locations at high frequency and high spatial resolution.
Date Issued
2022-11-16
Date Acceptance
2022-11-02
Citation
Frontiers in Environmental Science, 2022, 10, pp.1-12
ISSN
2296-665X
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Start Page
1
End Page
12
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Environmental Science
Volume
10
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2022 Farinha, di Tria, Reyes, Rosas, Pang, Zufferey, Pomati and Kovac. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2022.1023269/full
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2022-11-16