Autonomous Distributed Atmospheric Measurement Acquisition: Three Dimensional Meteorological Measurements using Large Swarms of microUAVs.

This paper details the use of 112 micro-UAVs used for assessing small aerial systems containing embedded meteorological sensors. The Autonomous Distributed Atmospheric Measurement Acquisition (ADAMA) mission demonstrated that a significant number of micro-UAVs could be dropped from four larger UAVs, glide to a specified waypoint of interest, and autonomously collect data in the atmospheric boundary layer. This swarming behavior enabled the simultaneous collection of data in 3D, without the need for pilot input and successfully collected real-time meteorological data within a target area defined by a single GPS waypoint. One challenge to the use of large swarms of vehicles for science studies involve having individual pilots for each vehicle, rendering multi-agent systems impractical, however, autonomous swarming allows for coordinated flight of multiple unmanned aircraft without the single pilot, single vehicle requirement. Figure 1 shows the CICADA (Close-In-Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft) used for this project. One advantage of using these micro-UAVs is the low cost lends to their disposable nature. This enables higher risk missions without the fear of high value equipment loss. These micro-UAVs are instrumented to measure pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and wind direction and telemeter that data to a ground station. Data from the ADAMA mission will be presented herein and shows collected data that are consistent with expected results. The microUAVs were flown to 1200 ft. MSL aboard 4 larger UAVs and released. Upon release, they started collecting data as they descended in a spiral pattern. The success of this mission has led to further collaboration with the NASA Earth Science community and future work will include flying a similar operation at higher altitudes, making measurements inside of clouds.