Autonomous 3D printed buoy deployed by drone for river monitoring
AeroBuoy: A Drone Deployable, 3D Printed, Autonomous Robotic Buoy for Environmental Inspection in Remote and Hazardous River Systems
Robotics
Summary
Monitoring dangerous or hard-to-reach rivers is important to understand changes from things like construction or climate change. The authors designed a small robot buoy that a drone can drop into these rivers by air. This buoy then floats down the river by itself, steering with GPS to collect environmental data such as water temperature and clarity. They tested this system in a real river in New Zealand, showing how the buoy can operate independently in remote or risky waterways.
What this means in practice
- •For environmental monitoring teams: Deploy autonomous buoys by drone to collect data in remote or hazardous river environments where boat access is impractical.
- •For disaster response teams: Use drone-launched buoys to quickly monitor water conditions in flooded or dangerous river areas to guide rescue and relief efforts.
Authors
Reuben O'Brien, Angus Lynch, Minas Liarokapis
Abstract
Monitoring of waterways such as remote and hazardous rivers and streams is important so as to assess the impact of external factors including construction runoff or climate change. Versatile, autonomous robotic boats can offer excellent environmental inspection and monitoring solutions for remote, dangerous, or access protected water bodies but they have several shortcomings in terms of maneuverability. This paper proposes an environmental inspection system consisting of an autonomous data collection buoy which is designed to be deployed to inaccessible river systems using a drone. The system can perform a drop off and pickup of the buoy depending on the requirements of a particular location and monitoring task. Utilising the natural flow of the river the buoy autonomously steers down, using GPS and magnetometers so as to maintain the desired trajectory. The buoy is capable of measuring water temperature but it can also be equipped with a range of sensors such as water oxygen meter, sonar for river bed inspection, or turbidity for water clarity. This paper describes the system design, presents an analysis of the self-righting capabilities of the buoy, and shows a full system demonstration at the Ōrewa River in Auckland, New Zealand.