Sampling operation with robotic UAV

Abstract

This work presents a solution to automatize sampling tasks in a wastewater treatment plant with open air basins. At the behest of human operators, a set of UAVs managed as a network of autonomous agents will perform sample missions by taking direct measurements (through a multiparametric probe) or capturing samples and carrying them to the laboratory with specific developed hardware. These capabilities allow the proposed solution to act as a virtual sensor network with sampling points deployed and connected at any point reachable by UAVs. The hardware prototypes are fully described, with focus on the integration of systems, and the software architecture used is analysed and fully justified. Special focus was put on the localization problem, and several solutions were evaluated. Experimental results of the prototype UAV and sampling probe built are provided to validate the hardware designs, with focus on the localizations tasks.