INTELLIGENT OPTICAL SYSTEMS, INC. — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.4

Description

IOS #21-061 (LZ)PROJECT SUMMARYTitle:Drone-mounted Water Quality Monitoring Sensor SystemPD:Zhang Lihua Institution: Intelligent Optical Systems Inc.Over the past decade drones also referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) haveemerged as novel versatile adaptable and flexible capable of monitoring and assessing thenatural environment. Drones equipped with chemical sensors are emerging as valuable tools formonitoring air quality. However current drone-based technology for water monitoring is stilllimited with water sampling and detection based on photos taken by drone. To our knowledgethere is no commercial drone-based sensing system on the market to collect in-situ hydro- chemical data from water due to the limited payload and power consumption on drones.Intelligent Optical Systems Inc. (IOS) proposes to develop a robust flexible and reliable drone- mounted sensing system that can remotely access a waterbody thus dramatically reducing thecost of monitoring. In addition the system enables real-time monitoring over large areas. Real- time monitoring at lower cost will allow newer remarkably more effective monitoring andmitigation strategies in agricultural water management.1