Arduino sensor integrated drone for weather indices: a prototype for pre-flight preparation

TL;DR

This paper introduces an Arduino-based drone system equipped with a meteorological station that autonomously collects localized weather data and images to improve pre-flight safety assessments for drone operations.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel autonomous drone prototype with integrated sensors and camera for localized weather monitoring during pre-flight checks.

Findings

Effective local weather data collection in micro-scale regions

Autonomous operation with automatic flight profiles

Enhanced pre-flight safety assessment capabilities

Abstract

Commercial weather stations can effectively collect weather data for a specified area. However, their ground sensors limit the amount of data that can be logged, thus failing to collect precise meteorological data in a local area such as a micro-scale region. This happens because weather conditions at a micro-scale region can vary greatly even with small altitude changes. For now, drone operators must check the local weather conditions to ensure a safe and successful flight. This task is often a part of pre-flight preparations. Since flight conditions (and most important flight safety) are greatly affected by weather, drone operators need a more accurate localized weather map reading for the flight area. In this paper, we present the Arduino Sensor Integrated Drone (ASID) with a built-in meteorological station that logs the weather conditions in the vertical area where the drone will be deployed. ASID is an autonomous drone-based system that monitors weather conditions for pre-flight preparation. The operation of the ASID system is based on the Arduino microcontroller running automatic flight profiles to record meteorological data such as temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, etc. The Arduino microcontroller also takes photos of the horizon for an objective assessment of the visibility, the base, and the number of clouds.