Atmospheric Sampling Strategies with UAS Swarms

This paper presents approaches to enable a team of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to efficiently and accurately sample atmospheric data in an urban environment or an area with complex terrain. The collected data can be used for numerous approaches, e.g., to initialize weather models, assess and improve the fidelity of weather models, integrate with source localization algorithms, military applications, or other scientific programs to better comprehend the fundamental underpinnings of meteorological phenomena. The paper outlines techniques to directly measure atmospheric variables such as wind, temperature, pressure, and relative humidity with small UAS instrumented with onboard sensors, including objective analysis of small, lightweight ultrasonic anemometers suitable for small UAS application. Cooperative sensing strategies based on multi-vehicle autonomy are discussed and demonstrated in simulation experiments.