Abstract
Abstract
This article deals with the development of real-time air
quality monitoring based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and
low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This investigation aims
to design and develop an UAV-based platform that can monitor a large
number of air pollutants in real-time with high spatial and temporal
resolution. The proposed environmental monitoring system consists of
five main elements, namely the UAV, sensors, data storage module,
programmable card, and IoT communication module. Estimated
pollutants such as particulate matter (PM2.5) and toxic gases
(carbon monoxide CO, nitrogen dioxide NO2, and carbon dioxide
CO2) are detected by low-cost sensors. The ZigBee wireless
protocol is used for communication between the PC and UAV. This work
is carried out to assess the air quality in urban areas, given the
heavy road traffic and the emissions of some companies. The data
analyzed were collected from December 2, 2022 to January 3, 2023, in
two major cities of Cameroon, Douala and Kribi. The periodic average
values of the detected pollutants are 222 ± 22 μg/m3
and 85.7 ± 8.6 μg/m3 for PM2.5,
560.8 ± 1.0 ppm and 555.6 ± 1.0 ppm for CO2,
4.2 ± 0.2 ppm and 0.7 ± 0.1 ppm for NO2, and
27.6 ± 2.8 ppm and 4.5 ± 0.5 ppm for CO in Douala and
Kribi respectively. This made it possible to have an air quality
index (AQI) of 444.2 for Douala City and 171.3 for Kribi City. These
high values indicate poor air quality during the measurement
period.