This project and research in this area is focused on the determination of using an unmanned aerial vehicle, fitted with a spore trap, to detect and monitor spores of plant pathogens for a biosecure Australia. The aim was to develop a sampling system that would have the ability to spatially monitor fungal spores, and protocols to interpret their spatial distribution. The major outcomes of the project were the development and testing of:
- An advanced airborne biosensor with capabilities to geo-locate spores, and
- An advanced path planning tool for minimizing the length of collision-free trajectories from the start to the target position and also the feasible return path to the start position or to an end position.
What is the biosecurity problem?
The problem with existing spore sampling devices is that they are stationary at the sampling location. It is important to have the correct sampling location, however due to prevailing climatic conditions where topography is severe, it is almost impossible to do this. When the disease is in the canopy of trees, using existing spore sampling technologies is also near impossible.
Multidisciplinary Design
The first step for the project team was to use the exiting prototype spore trap developed by Les Zeller and modify it for the purpose of wind tunnel and flight testing onboard the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
A wind tunnel test was conducted to address two issues:
- detecting spores with known probability of detection, and
- understanding the probability of false alarms.
Results from the wind tunnel tests allowed for the calculation of the spread of spores captured on the tape.
The spore trap was then integrated to the UAV and onboard auto pilot systems. The UAV was flown autonomously and the tape index was programmed to shift to a predefined sampling location once the desired waypoint was reached. The flight test displayed that the Flamingo UAV could be flown autonomously without exhibiting any flight stability issues while the spore trap was onboard. Furthermore, the onboard tape indexing system was validated to function remotely where the index position could be verified via the Horizon ground station graphical user interface.
Optimal Path Planning:
Cost-effective and safe biosensing requires precision path planning of the UAV in order to keep the spore trap in the target area.The project developed an advanced path planning tools for minimising the length of collision-free trajectories from the start to the target position and also the feasible return path to the start position or to an end position.
Research implications:
This tool will greatly enhance the ability to detect new incursions of fungal pathogens and to enable more accurate delimiting of distribution. The technology will allow for earlier detection of harmful plant pest or disease incursions in difficult areas and provide efficient and effective airborne surveillance.
Research publications
- Gonzalez, F, Narayan, P., Castro, M.P , Zeller, L. (2011) Development of an autonomous unmanned aerial system to collect time-stamped samples from the atmosphere and localize potential pathogen sources. Journal of Field Robotics, 28(6), pp. 961-976.
- Zeller, L.; Kamel, P. Development of a Smart Spore Trap (2011), Science Exchange 2011
- Gonzalez, F., Narayan, P., Walker, R., Zeller, L. (2011),, Performance Analysis of Flying Spores Detection System for Plant Biosecurity Management Science Exchange 2011
- Tamagnone Cosmelli, F.(2010), Remote Gas/Particle airborne sensor for UAV: Design and Flight Tests. Master’s thesis
- Gonzalez, L.F., Lee, D.S, Walker, R.A. (2010), Mission Path Planning (MPP) for an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) fitted with an air sampling device In Global Bio-security 2010 Conference.
- Gonzalez, L.F. Narayan, P., Walker, R.A, Zeller, L., Ristovski, Z. (2010), Multidisciplinary Design and Flight Testing of a Remote Sensing Airborne Biosensor, In Global Bio-security 2010 Conference.
- Gonzalez LF, Lee D, Walker R, Periaux J . (2009). Optimal Mission Path Planning (MPP) For An Air Sampling Unmanned Aerial System. 2009 Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation.
- Bayliss, K., Jensen, T., Zeller,, Wagner, F., Walker, R., MacLeod, B., Vawdrey, L., Kong, G. (2008) Using unmanned aerial vehicles to demostrate freedom from exotic plant pathogens, Journal of Plant Pathology, 90 (S2), 98.
- Zeller, L. (2007) Development of indexing spore trap for use with remotely controlled aircraft, CRC National Plant Biosecurity Science Exchange,2007
