Tracking of a Fluorescent Dye in a Freshwater Lake with an Unmanned Surface Vehicle and an Unmanned Aircraft System
1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
2
Department of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Remote Sens. 2018, 10(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10010081
Received: 17 November 2017
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Revised: 2 January 2018
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Accepted: 4 January 2018
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Published: 9 January 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs))
Recent catastrophic events in our oceans, including the spill of toxic oil from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the rapid dispersion of radioactive particulates from the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, underscore the need for new tools and technologies to rapidly respond to hazardous agents. Our understanding of the movement and aerosolization of hazardous agents from natural aquatic systems can be expanded upon and used in prevention and tracking. New technologies with coordinated unmanned robotic systems could lead to faster identification and mitigation of hazardous agents in lakes, rivers, and oceans. In this study, we released a fluorescent dye (fluorescein) into a freshwater lake from an anchored floating platform. A fluorometer (fluorescence sensor) was mounted underneath an unmanned surface vehicle (USV, unmanned boat) and was used to detect and track the released dye in situ in real-time. An unmanned aircraft system (UAS) was used to visualize the dye and direct the USV to sample different areas of the dye plume. Image processing tools were used to map concentration profiles of the dye plume from aerial images acquired from the UAS, and these were associated with concentration measurements collected from the sensors onboard the USV. The results of this project have the potential to transform monitoring strategies for hazardous agents, enabling timely and accurate exposure assessment and response in affected areas. Fast response is essential in reacting to the introduction of hazardous agents, in order to quickly predict and contain their spread.
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Keywords:
dye tracking; hazardous agents; fluorescein; plume; unmanned systems
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Powers, C.; Hanlon, R.; Schmale, D.G., III. Tracking of a Fluorescent Dye in a Freshwater Lake with an Unmanned Surface Vehicle and an Unmanned Aircraft System. Remote Sens. 2018, 10, 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10010081
AMA Style
Powers C, Hanlon R, Schmale DG III. Tracking of a Fluorescent Dye in a Freshwater Lake with an Unmanned Surface Vehicle and an Unmanned Aircraft System. Remote Sensing. 2018; 10(1):81. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10010081
Chicago/Turabian StylePowers, Craig, Regina Hanlon, and David G. Schmale III. 2018. "Tracking of a Fluorescent Dye in a Freshwater Lake with an Unmanned Surface Vehicle and an Unmanned Aircraft System" Remote Sensing 10, no. 1: 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10010081
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