No abstract

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) provide a cheap, effective platform to measure carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. This project focuses on the development of an inexpensive unmanned aircraft and sensor system to detect CO 2 leaks through in-situ atmospheric measurement of CO 2 , primarily for the purpose of quantifying emissions from underground carbon sequestration reservoirs. The sensor system is developed around a Senseair K-30 FR -a lightweight, low cost NDIR CO 2 sensor that is proved to have results on par with much larger and more expensive sensors. The system records CO 2 levels and their corresponding GPS coordinates, as well as tertiary sensor data (atmospheric data, altitude, etc.), using an Arduino microcontroller. This package is integrated with additional UAS components and a variety of autopilots to demonstrate the capability to create a 3D map of CO 2 levels. The resulting data can then be analyzed to determine the areas of highest CO 2 concentration and identify the location and severity of a possible leak.