Multirotor-assisted measurements of wind-induced drift of irregularly shaped objects in aquatic environments

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how multirotor drones and waterproof tracking modules can accurately measure wind and drift characteristics of small objects in aquatic environments, improving hazard spill and rescue operations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of multirotor UAS and embedded sensors for on-demand wind and surface flow measurements to characterize object drift in water.

Findings

UAS-based measurements yielded leeway parameters within previous estimates.

High-resolution ambient data improves understanding of object orientation effects.

Field experiments confirmed the effectiveness of UAS in aquatic drift characterization.

Abstract

Ocean hazardous spills and search and rescue incidents are more prevalent as maritime activities increase across all sectors of society. However, emergency response time remains a factor due to a lack of information to accurately forecast the location of small objects. Existing drifting characterization techniques are limited to objects whose drifting properties are not affected by on-board wind and surface current sensors. To address this challenge, we study the application of multirotor unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and embedded navigation technology, for on-demand wind velocity and surface flow measurements to characterize drifting properties of small objects. An off-the-shelf quadrotor was used to measure wind velocity at 10 m above surface level near a drifting object. We also leveraged UAS-grade attitude and heading reference systems and GPS antennas to build water-proof tracking modules that record the position and orientation, as well of translational and rotational velocities, of objects drifting in water. The quadrotor and water-proof tracking modules were deployed during field experiments conducted in lake and ocean environments to characterize the leeway parameters of manikins simulating a person in water. Leeway parameters were found to be an order of magnitude within previous estimates derived using conventional wind and surface current observations. We also determined that multirotor UAS and water-proof tracking modules can provide accurate and high-resolution ambient information that is critical to understand how changes in orientation affect the downwind displacement and jibing characteristics of small objects floating in water. These findings support further development and application of multirotor UAS technology for leeway characterization and understanding the effect of an object's downwind-relative orientation on its drifting characteristics.