Surveillance drones have been developed to “sniff” the air: they are equipped with artificial intelligence technologies allowing them to assess the quality of the air in real time, and issue an alert if necessary. While in India, this data is used to adjust prevention measures, in France, drones are deployed to analyze the pollution emitted by ships offshore.
In Delhi, a drone road surveillance system against air pollution
In order to develop an air pollution control strategy in Delhi, the Delhi Air Quality Board recently approved seven projects involving the use of artificial intelligence and drones to monitor air quality. the air in real time and check the number of vehicles circulating in the city. The projects are under the strict supervision of different technical and academic institutes like Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute.
These projects will focus on deploying artificial intelligence tools to count vehicles and combat traffic-induced resuspension of road dust. This deployment of real-time air pollution monitoring drones will also be used to help decision-making for air quality management in Delhi and neighboring districts, Indian official sources say.
In the PACA region, drones run after ships to analyze their emissions and impose fines
In July 2021, air pollution monitoring drones were deployed in Marseille. They make it possible to measure polluting emissions from ships and the impact of the regulations already in place. Equipped with electrochemical sensors, the drone passes through the plume of exhaust gases from ships in order to analyze the sulfur content of the fuel burned. This makes it possible to assess the quantity of sulfur present in the fuel used by ships, as detailed by the specialized site Atmosud.
This European monitoring program called the “SCIPPER project” (for Shipping Contributions to Inland Pollution – Push for the Enforcement of Regulations) assesses the impact of maritime transport emissions on air quality. This data is used to lobby for enforcement of regulations, and impose heavy fines on offenders.
In the English Channel, drones also check that ships comply with anti-pollution regulations
Véronique Magnin, communication manager for the maritime prefecture of the Channel and North Sea explains that the legislation on pollutant emissions at sea, with a “modification of the international regulations on the limit of sulfur content in the exhaust fumes of commercial vessels” as of January 1, 2020 requires that the sulfur content limit which used to be up to 3.5% be reduced to 0.5%.
As the Channel North Sea sector is very busy and relatively narrow, the content is even more limited, at 0.1%. To enforce these requirements, at the end of April, the Ministry of the Sea set up a new season of monitoring air pollution at sea by drone for five months. Thanks to a kind of miniature remote-operated helicopter, the authorities can analyze the sulfur content of the fuel burned using on-board electrochemical sensors. These controls, according to the Channel press, make it possible to verify that shipowners have chosen better refined propulsion fuels to reduce the rate of fine particles discharged into the sea. The sulfur content is measured, because it is easier to capture in the air.