DRONE-MOUNTED WATER QUALITY MONITORING SENSOR SYSTEM

The overall goal of the Phase II work is to design, fabricate, test, characterize, and field-test a drone-mounted sensing platform that can remotely access a waterbody to collect in-situ temporal and spatial data, thus dramatically reducing the cost of water quality monitoring. The following specific objectives are planned:Objective 1. Optimize the phosphate sensor to achieve detection sensitivity of 0-2 mg/L.Objective 2. Reduce response time of pH, DO, nitrate, and phosphate sensors to <3 min.Objective 3. Perform shelf-life studies of pH, DO, nitrate, and phosphate to meet two-year requirement.Objective 4. Build a calibration function for pH, DO, nitrate, and phosphate sensors with temperature compensation.Objective 5. Incorporate additional sensors (temperature, conductivity, and turbidity) into system.Objective 6. Fabricate and characterize a drone-mounted sensor system prototype for multi-parameter monitoring.Objective 7. Test and validate drone-mounted prototype in watershed operations.Objective 8. Present a sensor unit design review to the USDA program manager and generate a roadmap for progression to a commercial product.