Remote Monitoring of Environment using Multi-sensor Wireless Node Installed on Quad-copter Drone

Environmental monitoring and radiation detection in the vicinity of nuclear power plants is a tricky task and there is a potential radiation exposure hazard for the human beings and wildlife. To remotely monitor the environmental parameters like humidity, temperature, radiation, etc., the sensors were installed on a remotely controlled quad-copter drone. A GPS was also installed to determine the location and height of the drone for the particular parameters. An Arduino Yun based circuit interface was designed and was mounted on the drone as a multi-sensor standalone wireless node. Built-in Wi-Fi of the Yun board was used to transmit all the data to the base station. Android based application was developed to communicate with the node and display the data in real time along with logging it to device. Furthermore, a humidity and a temperature sensor were fabricated in through printed electronics methods and were also mounted on the drone with aim to replace commercial sensors. The aim of this research work was to build a system that can be used in future for monitoring of nuclear power plant vicinity and study the changes in environmental parameters in that region.