Dissertations and Theses

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Prathap Ramamurthy

Keywords

ardupilot, drone, UAV, atmospheric, pressure anemometry, remote sensing

Abstract

This paper explores the development of a quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, a.k.a. drone) for atmospheric remote sensing of temperature, pressure, humidity, and PM2.5 particulate matter quantities. A 3-D printed drone body is designed and flight tuning is performed. An optimal length for an upward extending mast for the drone body is determined. Low cost, lightweight sensors are compared against higher precision sensors in both static and dynamic conditions. In addition, an initial investigation into the design of a pressure sensor based anemometer is performed.

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