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UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA
AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT ALGORITHM OF A QUADCOPTER SENSING
SYSTEM FOR METHANE GAS CONCENTRATION MEASUREMENTS AT LANDFILL SITE
OMAR IBRAHIM DALLAL BASHI
FK 2018 104
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AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT ALGORITHM OF A QUADCOPTER SENSING
SYSTEM FOR METHANE GAS CONCENTRATION MEASUREMENTS AT
LANDFILL SITE
By
OMAR IBRAHIM DALLAL BASHI
Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
June 2018
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COPYRIGHT
All material contained within the thesis, including without limitation text, logos, icons,
photographs, and all other artwork, is copyright material of Universiti Putra Malaysia
unless otherwise stated. Use may be made of any material contained within the thesis
for non-commercial purposes from the copyright holder. Commercial use of material
may only be made with the express, prior, written permission of Universiti Putra
Malaysia.
Copyright © Universiti Putra Malaysia
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DEDICATION
This thesis is especially dedicated to:
My praiseworthy parent,
My most-beloved wife Amina Luay Al-Arajy,
And my dearest sisters
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Abstract of thesis presented to the Senate of Universiti Putra Malaysia in fulfilment
of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT ALGORITHM OF A QUADCOPTER SENSING
SYSTEM FOR METHANE GAS CONCENTRATION MEASUREMENTS AT
LANDFILL SITE
By
OMAR IBRAHIM DALLAL BASHI
June 2018
Chairman : Associate Professor Wan Zuha Wan Hasan, PhD
Faculty : Engineering
A landfill site is an area of land that is used to dump rubbish, either directly on the
ground or by filling a hole in the ground. The landfill in such a way reduces
contamination of urban and suburban areas but affects its local environment and
presents an explosive and toxic risk due to the emission of harmful gases. This thesis
addresses the aforementioned health and safety problems, by innovating an
autonomous quadcopter drone equipped with highly accurate and efficient gas sensing
hardware. This quadcopter uses an algorithm to remotely and autonomously measure
the methane gas concentrations in user defined areas at landfill sites. Using this
sensitive and accurate gas sensing system, it is possible to map methane gas
concentrations, ascertain gas distribution and identify the hot spots for collection
purposes. However, there is a perceived risk that the quadcopter can disturb the gas
survey area. So, this thesis experiments to ascertain the optimal surveying patterns and
sensing parameters required to accurately sense methane gas clouds with minimal self-
induced air disturbance. To survey in an unstructured landfill site environment is
challenging and the quadcopter requires decisional autonomy capacities. The final
algorithm proposed in this thesis, self-generates coordinates based only on the user
input of three coordinate angles at the corner of the selected survey area, this makes it
possible to cover an area of any dimensions. This algorithm was proposed in this thesis
based on a special mathematical calculation model, which has the ability to decide the
spacing between adjacent straight-line trajectories within a user defined area, this
prevents the quadcopter from crashing during the survey due to reasons of over-
capability. During the experimentation, accurate methane gas concentration
measurements at landfill sites were obtained using the algorithm for autonomous
flight, with the implementation of optimal quadcopter flight parameters and gas sensor
mounting arrangements. These parameters are: the flight speed at 1m/s; the altitude at
100cm-150cm; sensing at the front of the quadcopters direction of travel; maintaining
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a level trajectory and sensing using a straight-line pattern. Only when the quadcopter
flew with these flight parameters would the flight measurements be accurate. Also,
the most suitable mounting position of the methane gas sensor was discovered to be
protruding forward and affixed to the end of a tiny rod. It was ascertained that the most
suitable time during working hours to measure methane concentration at a landfill site
was 1pm-2pm. During the tests the weather conditions were fine and acceptable to
carry out the experiments These parameters were also selected based on the practical
verification experiments. Finally, the autonomous quadcopter sensing system was
proved to be accurate with a sensing error of only 2.2% based on experiments carried
out in this thesis work.
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Abstrak tesis yang dikemukakan kepada Senat Universiti Putra Malaysia sebagai
memenuhi keperluan untuk ijazah Doktor Falsafah
ALGORITMA PENERBANGAN AUTOMATIK SISTEM QUADCOPTER
PENGESAN KONSENTRASI GAS METANA DI TAPAK PELUPUSAN
SAMPAH
Oleh
OMAR IBRAHIM DALLAL BASHI
Jun 2018
Pengerusi : Profesor Madya Wan Zuha Wan Hasan, PhD
Fakulti : Kejuruteraan
Tapak pelupusan adalah kawasan tanah yang digunakan untuk membuang sampah,
sama ada secara langsung di atas tanah atau dengan mengisi lubang di dalam tanah.
Tapak pelupusan sedemikian mengurangkan kontaminasi kawasan bandar dan pinggir
bandar, tetapi memberi kesan kepada persekitaran tempatan dan memberikan risiko
letupan serta toksik akibat pelepasan gas berbahaya. Tesis ini mencadangkan cara
untuk menangani masalah-masalah kesihatan dan keselamatan yang dinyatakan di
atas, dengan berinovasikan dron quadcopter automatik yang dilengkapi dengan
perkakas pengesan gas yang sangat tepat dan cekap. Dron ini menggunakan algoritma,
untuk mengukur kepekatan gas metana dari jarak jauh dan secara automatik di
kawasan yang ditentukan pengguna di tapak pelupusan sampah. Penggunaan sistem
penderiaan gas yang sensitif dan tepat dapat membantu proses pemetaan kepekatan
gas metana secara geografi, menentukan pengagihan gas dan mengenalpasti tempat-
tempat panas untuk tujuan pengumpulan maklumat. Walau bagaimanapun, terdapat
risiko di mana quadcopter boleh mengganggu kawasan tinjauan gas. Tesis ini juga
mengkaji pola ukur yg paling optimum dan parameter pengesanan yang diperlukan
untuk mengesan awan gas metana dengan tepat dan hanya menghadapi gangguan
udara yang minimum disebabkan oleh struktur quadcopter. Untuk meninjau
persekitaran tapak pelupusan yang tidak berstruktur, quadcopter memerlukan
keupayaan untuk membuat keputusan secara automatik. Satu algoritma dicadangkan
untuk menghasilkan satu koordinat dengan sendirinya berdasarkan input pengguna.
Dengan hanya memasukkan tiga sudut koordinat kawasan tinjauan yang dipilih, maka
kawasan tinjauan boleh meliputi sebarang keluasan. Algoritma akhir yang
dicadangkan adalah berdasarkan kepada model matematik khas, yang mempunyai
keupayaan untuk menentukan jarak di antara trajektori garis lurus yang bersebelahan
dalam kawasan yang ditentukan oleh pengguna, ia bertujuan menghalang quadcopter
dari terhempas semasa membuat tinjauan yang disebabkan oleh keupayaan terhad.
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Semasa tinjauan dilakukan, pengukuran kepekatan gas metana yang tepat di tapak
pelupusan telah diperolehi menggunakan algoritma penerbangan automatik, dengan
pelaksanaan parameter penerbangan quadcopter yang optimum dan kedudukan
pelekap pengesan gas. Parameter ini adalah: kelajuan penerbangan pada 1m/s;
ketinggian pada 100cm-150cm; pengesanan di bahagian hadapan arah perjalanan
quadcopters; mengekalkan trajektori tahap dan pengesanan menggunakan corak garis
lurus. Apabila quadcopter terbang dengan parameter penerbangan ini sahaja
pengukuran akan menjadi tepat. Selain itu, kajian tesis ini mendapati kedudukan
pelekap gas metana yang paling sesuai adalah ditonjolkan ke hadapan dan dilekatkan
pada akhir sebuah batang kecil. Kajian juga mendapati bahawa masa yang paling
sesuai untuk mengukur kepekatan metana di tapak pelupusan adalah diantara jam 1:00
ptg – 2:00 ptg. Semasa ujian dijalankan, keadaan cuaca adalah baik dan boleh diterima
untuk menjalankan eksperimen, parameter yang dinyatakan sebelum ini juga dipilih
berdasarkan eksperimen pengesahan praktikal. Akhirnya, penggunaan sistem
pengesanan quadcopter automatik ini dapat dibuktikan dengan tepat dan mempunyai
ralat pengesanan hanya 2.2%.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
First and foremost, I would like to thank the Almighty God for the blessing of giving
me strength and patience to complete my study.
And I would also like to thank:
-My wonderful parent, Dr. Ibrahim Dallal Bashi for his scientific, knowledge and
financial support as well as his love and patience and Intisar Al-Saigh, for her love
and patience too.
-My wife, Amina Luay Al-Arajy, for her precious love, steadfast support and
invaluable consultation throughout this journey.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation
to my supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wan Zuha Wan Hasan for all his guidance, support
and help during my study. Many thanks also due for the support given by my co-
supervisors Assoc. Prof. Dr. Suhaidi Shafie, Dr. Norhafiz Azis and Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Hiroaki Wagatsuma.
I also would like to thank the Universiti Putra Malaysia UPM for accepting my
application to study at this prestigious Faculty of Engineering.
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This thesis was submitted to the Senate of the Universiti Putra Malaysia and has been
accepted as fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The
members of the Supervisory Committee were as follows:
Wan Zuha Wan Hasan, PhD
Associate Professor
Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia
(Chairman)
Suhaidi Shafie, PhD Associate Professor
Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia
(Member)
Norhafiz Azis, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia
(Member)
Hiroaki Wagatsuma, PhD
Associate Professor
Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia
(Member)
ROBIAH BINTI YUNUS, PhD
Professor and Dean
School of Graduate Studies
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Date:
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Declaration by graduate student
I hereby confirm that:
this thesis is my original work;
quotations, illustrations and citations have been duly referenced;
this thesis has not been submitted previously or concurrently for any other degree
at any institutions;
intellectual property from the thesis and copyright of thesis are fully-owned by
Universiti Putra Malaysia, as according to the Universiti Putra Malaysia
(Research) Rules 2012;
written permission must be obtained from supervisor and the office of Deputy
Vice-Chancellor (Research and innovation) before thesis is published (in the form
of written, printed or in electronic form) including books, journals, modules,
proceedings, popular writings, seminar papers, manuscripts, posters, reports,
lecture notes, learning modules or any other materials as stated in the Universiti
Putra Malaysia (Research) Rules 2012;
there is no plagiarism or data falsification/fabrication in the thesis, and scholarly
integrity is upheld as according to the Universiti Putra Malaysia (Graduate
Studies) Rules 2003 (Revision 2012-2013) and the Universiti Putra Malaysia
(Research) Rules 2012. The thesis has undergone plagiarism detection software
Signature: _______________________ Date: __________________
Name and Matric No.: Omar Ibrahim Dallal Bashi, GS46204
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Declaration by Members of Supervisory Committee
This is to confirm that:
the research conducted and the writing of this thesis was under our supervision;
supervision responsibilities as stated in the Universiti Putra Malaysia (Graduate
Studies) Rules 2003 (Revision 2012-2013) were adhered to.
Signature:
Name of Chairman
of Supervisory
Committee:
Associate Professor Dr. Wan Zuha Wan Hasan
Signature:
Name of Member
of Supervisory
Committee:
Associate Professor Dr. Suhaidi Shafie
Signature:
Name of Member
of Supervisory
Committee:
Dr. Norhafiz Azis
Signature:
Name of Member
of Supervisory
Committee:
Associate Professor Dr. Hiroaki Wagatsuma
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT i
ABSTRAK iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v
APPROVAL vi
DECLARATION viii
LIST OF TABLES xii
LIST OF FIGURES xiv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xvii
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Overview and Motivation 1 1.2 Problem Statement 1
1.3 Research Objectives 3 1.4 Scope and Limitations of the Study 4
1.5 Research Contribution 5 1.6 Layout of the thesis 5
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 7 2.1 Overview 7
2.2 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Quadcopter 7 2.3 Multicopters Types 8
2.4 Quadcopter flying mechanism 10 2.5 Quadcopter Control Techniques 13
2.6 Quadcopters Control Boards 14 2.7 Quadcopters sensors 16
2.8 Quadcopter applications 18 2.8.1 Risk and Rescue Tasks 18
2.8.2 Sniffer Sensors for Gas Detection Applications 19 2.8.3 Quadcopters Real-World Applications 19
2.9 Searching Pattern 20 2.10 Flight Algorithm 22
2.11 Landfill Site 25 2.11.1 Health Risks Linked to Landfills 25
2.11.2 Methane Gas 26 2.11.3 Measurement at Landfill 27
2.11.4 Types of Monitoring in Landfill 27 2.12 Summary 28
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3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 29 3.1 Overview 29
3.1.1 Quadcopter flight parameters 30 3.1.2 Type of Pattern for Surveying to Cover the Landfill Site 30
3.1.3 Altitude of Flying 31 3.1.4 Speed of Quadcopter Flying Movement 32
3.1.5 Nose Orientation of Quadcopter Body During Performing
the Task 32
3.2 Proposed Autonomous Sensing System 32 3.2.1 Quadcopter Parts 34
3.2.2 Units Used to Develop the Sensing System for the
Quadcopter Application 34
3.2.3 Methane Sensor Calibration 35 3.2.4 Methane Sensors Positions Optimization 38
3.2.5 Sensing System for a Quadcopter Application 44 3.2.6 Autonomous Flight Algorithm 49
3.2.7 Ground Sensor Unit 55 3.3 Experiments and Verifications 55
3.3.1 Experiments in Laboratory Site 56 3.3.2 Experiments of the First Time in the Real Landfill Site 62
3.3.3 Experiments of the Second Time in the Real Landfill Site 64 3.4 Repetition Test 69
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 70 4.1 Overview 70
4.2 Verifications of the Experiments in Laboratory Site 70 4.3 Verifications of the Experiments in Tanjung Duabelas
Sanitary Landfill Site 82 4.4 Verifications of the experiments in Jeram Sanitary Landfill Site 87
5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 95 5.1 Conclusion 95
5.2 Recommendation 95
REFERENCES 97
APPENDICES 110 BIODATA OF STUDENT 130
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 131
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1.1 Quadcopter specifications 4
1.2 Weather conditions 4
2.1 Literature review related to the flight robot’s algorithms 24
2.2 Health effects statistics among people who live near landfills sites 26
2.3 Typical landfill gas components 27
2.4 Related work for monitoring gas equipment type in landfill site 28
3.1 Results comparison of the four types of pattern 31
3.2 Quadcopter parts specifications 34
3.3 Flight sensors features 34
3.4 Environmental sensors feature 35
3.5 Scaling sensor values 37
3.6 Properties of air at 1 atm pressure 42
3.7 Sensor positions of other related researches 44
3.8 Abilities of autonomous flight algorithm 49
4.1 Methane gas concentrations for 12 positions (from 12 sensors
fixed on the tip of the sticks)
76
4.2
Comparison of methane gas concentration measured for 12
positions by ground sensors versus quadcopter sensing system
78
4.3
Methane gas concentrations measured for P1 and P7 with different
sensors and flying modes
80
4.4
Allowable wind speed range versus methane gas concentration 81
4.5 The results for selected position without turning on the propeller 82
4.6 The results for selected position with turning on the propeller 83
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4.7 Practical implementation results of quadcopter flying speed 86
4.8
Comparison of methane gas concentration measurement of ground
sensor versus quadcopter sensor
87
4.9 The time duration for four flying pattern types 88
4.10 Comparison of Methane Gas Concentration Measurement of
Ground Sensor Versus Quadcopter Sensors at Real Landfill
90
4.11
The results of the importance of the autonomous quadcopter flying
on the concentration measurement
91
4.12 The test results of suitable time during working period 94
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
2.1 Unmanned vehicles classification 7
2.2 Quadcopter notation showing the four motors 11
2.3 Cross configuration 11
2.4 Plus configuration 11
2.5 Quadcopter movement 12
2.6 Quadcopter general inertial frame coordinates 12
2.7 Typical PID Control 14
2.8 Straight pattern 21
2.9 Squares pattern 21
2.10 Zigzag Pattern 22
3.1 Research methodology phases 29
3.2 Types of flying patterns 31
3.3 Sensing system flow work 33
3.4 TGS2611 Figaro sensor 36
3.5
The scaling device “International Sensor Technology USA, Model
IQ1000”
36
3.6 Methane gas sensor directly under propeller 38
3.7 Methane gas sensor in the middle of quadcopter platform 38
3.8
Methane gas sensor separated by tiny rod equipped on the
quadcopter
39
3.9 Position of methane gas sensor with respect to the quadcopter body 39
3.10 Propeller streamtube airflow in quadcopter hover 40
3.11 The airflow of the quadcopter as four streamtubes 43
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3.12
The block diagram of sensing system for quadcopter application
with manual flight control
45
3.13
Overall block diagram of the sensing system for quadcopter
application with autonomous flight control
46
3.14
The final prototype of developed autonomous quadcopter sensing
system
47
3.15 Power consumption versus quadcopter weight 48
3.16 Straight pattern in an area of L*W 50
3.17 Selected part 51
3.18 The overall flow chart of the flight algorithm 54
3.19 The block diagram of the ground sensor unit 54
3.20 Experiments and verifications flow work 56
3.21 (A) Sketch of the prototype landfill (B) Real prototype landfill 57
3.22 Ground sensor unit fixed on the tip of stick 57
3.23 Flying the quadcopter within the prototype landfill 59
3.24 The quadcopter flight between sticks no.1 and 7 60
3.25
Fixing the anemometer on the same stick adjacent to the ground
sensor unit
61
3.26 Practical set up 61
3.27 The top view of the Tanjung DuaBelas Sanitary Landfill site
showing the line of the test
62
3.28 Quadcopter flights within landfill site 63
3.29 Twelve sticks in regular grids form 65
3.30 Fixing the sticks in the landfill site 65
3.31
The location of 12 sticks at which the test was implemented in the
landfill site
66
3.32
Reading and storing the methane gas concentration from the
ground sensor fixed at tip of the sticks
66
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3.33
Flying the quadcopter in different pattern over the sticks in the
landfill site
67
3.34 The positions at which the test was implemented in the landfill site 69
4.1
Methane gas concentration distribution from 12 sensors fixed at
tip of sticks
76
4.2
Methane gas concentration mapping obtained from 12 sensors
fixed at tip of sticks
79
4.3
Methane gas concentration mapping obtained from 12 positions by
quadcopter sensing system
79
4.4
Comparison of methane gas concentration measured for 12
positions by ground sensors versus quadcopter body sensor which
separated by tinny rod
80
4.5 The methane gas concentration distribution with respect to the
quadcopter flying position without turning on propellers
83
4.6 The methane gas concentration distribution versus the flight
altitude of the quadcopter without turning on propellers
83
4.7 The methane gas concentration distribution with respect to the
quadcopter flying position with turning on propellers
84
4.8 The methane gas concentration distribution versus the flight
altitude of the quadcopter with turning on propellers
85
4.9
Comparison of methane gas concentration measurement of ground
sensor versus quadcopter sensor
88
4.10 Methane gas concentrations mapping 88
4.11
Comparison of methane gas concentration measured for 12
positions by ground sensors versus quadcopter body sensor with
manual and autonomous control flying modes
92
4.12 The methane gas concentrations mapping obtained by quadcopter
body sensor
92
4.13 Temperature-time chart 93
4.14 Humidity-time chart 94
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CH4 Methane
CO Carbon monoxide
GPS Global Positioning System
HF Hydrogen Fluoride
LEL Lower Explosive Limit
LRF Laser Range Finder
MEMS Micro Electrical Mechanical System
PID Proportional Integral Derivative
Re Reynolds number
SAW Surface Acoustic Wave
SONAR SOund Navigation And Range
UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
UEL Upper Explosive Limit
UGV Unmanned Ground Vehicle
UV Unmanned Vehicle
UWV Under Water Vehicle
VOC Volatile Organic Compound
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CHAPTER 1
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview and Motivation
There are certain areas where harmful gases emanate, these gases can pose serious
health and safety issues for those who work or live nearby. Often workers must enter
the risk area to periodically test for the presence of these gases. One such risk area is
a landfill site, which is a source of poisonous gases [1]. Studies have shown an
increased risk of contracting certain types of cancer, including bladder, brain and
leukaemia, among people who live near landfills. There is a significant overall
increased risk of neural-tube defects, malformations of the cardiac septa (hole-in-the-
heart), and malformations of the great arteries and veins in residents near to landfill
sites, also the study found that living near a landfill could expose residents to
chemicals that can reduce immune system function and lead to an increased risk of
infection [2][3]. Thus, tests must be carried out periodically for gas concentrations,
especially for methane gas [4][5]. So, the motivation of this research is, to propose a
new sensing system, to perform a wide survey of the landfill surface area, to ascertain
methane gas concentrations in order to mitigate the human health risks.
Nowadays, flying robots, especially quadcopter robots, can play important roles to
support the first response to recover equipment in harsh and dangerous environments;
assisting response teams to accomplish critical and complex tasks remotely from
hazardous situations. Quadcopter robotic solutions are well adapted to deal with local
unstructured conditions of an unknown environment and can greatly improve safety
and security of personnel, as well as improve work efficiency, productivity, flexibility
and reduce secondary damage in risky areas [6], which reflects the importance of this
sensing platform.
This research is directed towards developing a sensing system for a quadcopter to be
used at landfill sites, which starts by manually investigating the initial quadcopter
flight parameters, then refining the platform to work autonomously and finally,
calibrating and optimizing the system. Manual and autonomous flight controls are
both used in the proposed system; a novel flight algorithm is also designed and
implemented. Finally, measurements and verifications of this research are carried out.
1.2 Problem Statement
Environmental monitoring has become more prevalent since the inception of
European directives for the mandatory sensing of harmful gas emissions at landfill
sites. The current practice involves taking readings and submitting them to the Office
of Environmental Enforcement (OEE) [4]. The landfill produces roughly equal
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amounts of methane and carbon dioxide; however, current legislation only requires
methane emission to be measured on a weekly basis [4][7], in order to ensure that the
dump operates correctly [5]. Less than 1% of the landfill surface has high emission of
methane gas whose levels above 10 ppm methane gas [7]. Discovering the high
emission locations of methane gas, the gas can be tapped and collected for power
generation purposes. This involves regular monitoring the methane gas concentrations
and workers must normally encounter hazards and health risks to manually survey
these landfill sites [8].
There are three types of methane gas monitoring methods in use today at landfill sites:
portable, stationary and ground robot. Some gas sampling can be performed with
portable monitors, which are typically hand-held instruments that can be carried
around landfill sites [9]. Stationary monitors, on the other hand, are usually installed
at fixed locations, where they remain for the duration of the intended test
[3][4][10][11]. Finally, the third solution is a mobile ground robot that can move
around a landfill site [5]. The use of portable equipment for methane gas levels
readings has drawbacks. These readings are a labour-intensive process, which require
humans to traverse difficult and risky terrain and ultimately acquire readings within a
limited spatial coverage [4][12]. The use of stationary equipment has drawbacks too,
since these stationary wireless sensors are fixed in certain positions in the landfill site
and are limited in number, so the methane concentration measurements will not cover
the complete landfill site (i.e. as samples). In addition, the fixing of the stationary
wireless sensors requires that workers must traverse the harsh and risky environment
to affix or maintain them [13]. Using a ground robot also has drawbacks, sometimes
it is impossible to move it in the landfill site due to the irregularities of the terrain and
existing water swamps [10].
The awareness of poisonous gaseous environmental pollutants as directed by
European directive and due to the health risks associated with taking these
measurements, there is a demand for autonomous, robotic sensing system. Legislation
particularly applies to the monitoring of gaseous emissions from landfill sites [4] [14].
To perform these periodical emissions surveys safely and remotely, this new
development, of an efficient autonomous sensing system, is proposed to carry out this
task by enabling workers to survey the landfill site in order to overcome the drawbacks
of the aforementioned current measuring methods.
Pioneering researchers postulate that if the gas sensors are mounted on an autonomous
vehicle, e.g., Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the sensing range can be enlarged to
potentially improve the flexibility of gas leakage sensing and mitigate the associated
health risks for workers, such as asphyxiation and poisoning [13]. This problem is
addressed by a UAV prototype system which is robust and reliable for field trials [4].
The quadcopter UAV platform is lightweight, small, flexibly operated, portable and
can carry the sensing equipment to a certain weight [15]. No other tool can match it in
these aspects. Hence, the flexible quadcopter UAV is capable of stably accomplishing
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specific flight missions in complex and dangerous environments and hence is suitable
for operating in such risky environments [16][17].
It is a natural choice to select the quadcopter as the methane gas sensor carrier to easily
traverse the difficult and variable terrain of the risky landfill site [18].
Using a quadcopter in gas monitoring applications is challenging; correct sensor
mounting, and sensor positioning are critical, due to the induced disturbance by the
rotors of the quadcopter, which basically dilutes and disperses the surrounding gas-air
mixture [19][20]. So, the challenge is to define the correct flight parameters and sensor
mounting arrangements to negate the effects of this disturbance.
Some quadcopters are totally controlled remotely by a human operator. Other
quadcopters have a partially autonomous preprogramed flight plan with a human
operator, which provides a level of oversight at a central station. However, some
robotic quadcopters have a level of decisional autonomy to sense and make corrections
to their flight plans [21]. The surveillance of an unknown or uncertain environment
such as landfill site is one of the challenging tasks for a quadcopter that requires
decisional autonomy capacities. To address this challenge, a sophisticated algorithm
is required, so a new method is proposed in order to ensure the accuracy of methane
gas concentration measurements during area surveys, by implementing an
autonomous flying mode using an innovative algorithm, used to steadily navigate the
survey area.
1.3 Research Objectives
This research aims to develop an accurate autonomous quadcopter gas sensing system,
to safely and efficiently fulfil the survey duties required by a landfill company. In
order to realize this aim, it is necessary to fulfil the following objectives:
1- To investigate and define the flight parameters to improve sensing accuracy,
which are flight speed, flight altitude, flight trajectory and platform spatial
orientation, as well as optimise the mounting position of the methane gas sensor
on the quadcopter body.
2- To map the methane gas concentration distributions and identify gas hot spots
using a suitable survey pattern. Furthermore, identify an optimal survey pattern
to apply to an autonomous surveying solution.
3- To apply an autonomous approach using quadcopter for sensing system to fly
autonomously with efficient algorithm for self-flight decision capability under
certain parameters of flight based on investigation to satisfy reliable gas
concentration measurement accurately.
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1.4 Scope and Limitations of the Study
This research is focused on the development and implementation of a quadcopter
sensing system that is able to facilitate the gas surveying duties for a landfill company.
The research manages to achieve its objectives through real practical implementations
in two landfill sites, which are Jeram landfill and Tanjung DuaBelas landfill, as well
as by laboratory experiments undertaken at Universiti Putra Malaysia. There are some
limitations in conducting this research using this quadcopter sensing system for the
aforementioned application. Firstly, this research only adopted the UAV, type of
quadcopter with specifications given in Table 1.1. The quadcopter is equipped with
flight sensors, environment sensors, an Arduino UNO controller, as well as a wireless
transceiver XBee PRO S3B 900HP RPSMA, used to relay methane gas concentration
measurements.
Table 1.1 : Quadcopter specifications
Model Specifications
Tarot 650 Iron Man frame Carbon fibre frame is a lightweight foldable frame designed
to be highly portable.
YPG Lipo battery 5200mAh, Voltage: 6 Cell / 22.2V, Weight: 813g
Sunny Sky motor V3508-20 KV580 RPM/V brushless motor
T-Series 1355propellers Size: 33 x 4 x 1cm / 13 x 1.6 x 0.4 inch
Secondly, this research was implemented only at two landfill sites in Malaysia and
limited to measure methane gas concentration during certain weather conditions,
which are shown in Table1.2.
Table 1.2 : Weather conditions
Weather Values
Wind speed 0-5km/h
Humidity 49-75%
Temperature 27-36°C
Rain or no rain No rain
Thirdly, the quadcopter system is limited a maximum flight duration of 25 minutes,
due to battery charge capacity. Hence, the system is limited to a survey of an area of
15000m2 per mission.
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1.5 Research Contribution
This research aims to develop a system that allows landfill workers to remotely survey
areas away from potential asphyxiation, flammable, and poisonous hazards,
potentially workers’ lives will be saved, since they will avoid regularly entering the
landfill site with hand-held portable equipment to carry out methane gas concentration
measurements.
Also, this research will contribute to the industrial sector by developing a sensing
system for a quadcopter application to carry out reliable methane gas concentration
measurements. Moreover, this research contributes by identifying flight parameters
and patterns for successful practical methane gas concentration surveys at landfill
sites, without missing values or overlapping in an area. Using the developed
quadcopter sensing system methane gas hot spots can be efficiently identified to
enable gas collection. The expedient collection of gas has economic benefits for the
landfill site, since the collected gas can be used for power generation. Furthermore,
expedient collection of methane gas is environmentally beneficial, since methane is a
greenhouse gas.
Other contributions of this research are technical contributions, which are:
In the software part, the flight algorithm’s mathematic model can decide the spacing
pattern in order to cover any size of landfill area, allowing the quadcopter to fly under
specific parameters to give accurate measurement of methane gas concentration.
In the hardware part, the mounting position of the methane gas sensor is investigated
and optimized using Reynold’s equation and by practical verification. This prevents
the propellers induced air disturbances from affecting the gas sensor.
1.6 Layout of the thesis
Chapter 1 presents a general introduction to the subject and the problem statement. It
also introduces the aims, objectives, and contribution of the study, and gives a brief
summary of the structure of the thesis.
Chapter 2 gives a description of the process steps used to develop this flying robot for
its application and proposes potential searching patterns.
Chapter 3 describes the research methodology carried out to achieve the objectives
and discusses the steps that are taken to develop this quadcopter gas sensing system
for landfill site applications.
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Subseqently, Chapter 4 presents the results with discussions and verifies the results
obtained to rationally present an optimal quadcopter gas sensing system for landfill
site applications.
Finally, Chapter 5 gives a summary and the conclusion according to the findings of
this research. Suggestions and recommendations for future research in this area are
also presented in this final chapter.
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