Kazi Ragib Ishraq Sanim

Water sensing and sampling is a complex application that can benefit from the use of aerial drones. In the monitoring of an aquatic environment, an inspection of its physical, chemical, and biological states is equally important. In most cases, only the physical and chemical properties are investigated due to the lack of portable sensor packages capable of in-situ measurements of biological indicators. Additionally, biological sample collection for ex-situ analysis poses certain challenges which require specialized sample collection methods. For acquiring a good sample, remote sensing needs to work hand in hand with the sampling mechanism to capture the correct analyte of interest. This work presents the design and development of an aerial drone equipped with a sensor package including a fluorescence sensor, depth sensor, conductivity sensor, ultrasonic sensor, and a vacuum-assisted water sampling mechanism, for sensing and non-invasive sampling of dissolved organic matter in aquatic environments. The system can collect 3 samples of 250 mL each from 3 different locations. The developed system is experimentally validated in an outdoor setting and is shown to be capable for in-situ measurements of fluorescent content of water bodies and sensor-triggered sample collection.