Drone Detection
We can use specific sensors and drones to detect and pinpoint the exact location of trash in bodies of water. Drones contain cameras that are mounted on gimbals which allow for the drone to have a wide range of vision. This creates a more efficient way of detecting plastics because more surface area of the water is covered (36). Drones are also able to hold around 28 pounds of additive equipment (like sensors), without their flight ability being compromised. Also with recent innovations in UAV algorithms, UAVs have become more reliable to detect objects. With these new algorithms, using UAVs for object tracking is starting to become a competitor with other detection methods to track plastics in bodies of water.
Sensing
The drones would also make use of PixelCam-SWIR sensors to locate the waste. SWIR sensors are short-wave infrared cameras that are very lightweight making it very accessible to drones. Because of their light weight and small size (8.9 x 8.9 x 2.4mm), drones are able to fly without wasting extra battery life to compensate for the additional weight of the sensor (33). This ensures for longer flight times and less risk of malfunctions during a trip.
Location Capabilities
One issue with using drones to detect plastic pollution is the drone's ability to produce an accurate GPS coordinate location of the plastic detected. To increase accuracy of the drone’s GPS location coordinates, the drones would be integrated into an Internet of Drones. An Internet of Drones (IoD) are drones that are interconnected and can freely share their recorded GPS locations with each other to calculate the differences in distances from the host drone to generate more accurate coordinates (23). Not only will the IoD provide more accurate coordinates for when detecting the trash, but this will also allow for more surface area to be covered in a flight. The more drones in the internet, the more exact the data recorded becomes and theoretically, the more trash that is located.
Additional Sensor
Sometimes it can be difficult to detect objects in bodies of water with current flow due to sunlight reflections, wakes in the water, and the depth of the water. Because of this, we would utilize Micro HyperSpectral imaging sensors on the drones. The Micro HyperSpectral sensors utilize a VNIR spectral range lens. These sensors were created for detecting obscured objects that could be harder for a human to view (8). This is possible because of the spectral range the sensors are able to use.
