Aerial Interactions with Wireless Sensors

Sensing systems incorporating unmanned aerial vehicles have the potential to enable a host of hitherto impractical monitoring applications using wireless sensors in remote and extreme environments. Their use as data collection and power delivery agents can overcome challenges such as poor communications reliability in difficult RF environments and maintenance in areas dangerous for human operatives. Aerial interaction with wireless sensors presents some interesting new challenges, including selecting or designing appropriate communications protocols that must account for unique practicalities like the effects of velocity and altitude. This poster presents a practical evaluation of the effects of altitude when collecting sensor data using an unmanned aerial vehicle. We show that for an otherwise disconnected link over a long distance (70m), by increasing altitude (5m) the link is created and its signal strength continues to improve over tens of metres. This has interesting implications for protocol design and optimal aerial route planning.