CASCADE: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Meteorological Data Sampling

The focus of this project is to develop a platform and systems that will aid in the eventual implementation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for use in meteorological sampling. The key objectives are to determine what types of data are valuable, and how UAVs can be used to improve the ability of weather services to capture this data; how unmanned systems can be used as sensors for gathering particular types of data; and overcoming the technological challenges that need to be overcome, such as platform design and optimisation, and energy management. This will be done by initially designing a platform with high altitude capabilities and using it in a comparable way to weather balloons, gathering the same data but in a reusable way. Following this we will be attempting different approaches to gathering wind speed and direction data using the multirotor as a sensor based on the forces it experiences throughout its flight. The energy management system will be developed to use information gathered during the vehicles ascent to optimise a minimum energy trajectory back to the home location based on the experienced winds. Finally, with data gathered from high altitude flights on the expected conditions an approach to design optimal platforms based on mission profiles and expected conditions will be developed.