Smart methane drone: Development of a semi-autonomous measuring drone for the detection, localization and quantification of methane leaks
Brief description
For the task of detecting and localizing methane leaks, the gas leak detection specialist has to use "sniffer probes" i.e. in-situ measuring devices which must come into contact with the gas. Infrared-optical methods are used for remote measurement. There are active IR devices meassuring a small point or passiv IR gascameras. These devices do not allow quantification or only with very high measurement uncertainties. If quantification is required, the escaping gas can be collected and/or actively sucked in, which involves considerable effort and does not work with all gas mixtures. The joint research project "Development of a semi-autonomous measurement drone for the detection, localization and quantification of methane leakages" is concerned with the development of a semi-autonomous measurement drone for the cost-effective detection, localization and quantification of leakages to reduce environmentally harmful methane emissions. The focus here is on plants that are manageable in terms of size, but in some cases difficult to reach. These are, for example, biogas plants, landfills or gas pipelines on bridges. These facilities can be inspected well within the local and temporal framework of a drone flight, which opens up additional potential for leakage detection and assessment and thus for climate protection.
Currently available drone systems are not capable of aligning the measurement system based on detected CH4 leaks for the purpose of accurately recording them and automatically optimizing the flight path depending on detected leaks. This means that they can only be used to a limited extent. Therefore, in this project a smart drone control system including a novel automatic measurement system will be developed and investigated. Based on the detected methane emissions, an automatic alignment of the measurement system, as well as the independent optimization of the measurement route by the drone will be performed, which has the following major advantages: By optimizing the alignment and flight route, the leakages can be inspected and quantified from an optimal perspective (direct view), which increases the accuracy of the measurement results. In addition, a smart system allows economical one-person operation. Here, especially the spatial conditions of the plants and the gas plumes of the leakages influenced by the wind play a decisive role. For the optimization and validation of the system, therefore, scenarios for the intelligent routing of the drone must first be investigated in laboratory and field tests so that it can then be technically integrated into the overall system.
Person in charge
Projekt duration
March 2021 - May 2023