Every morning, the BH-12 module must be calibrated by “sniffing” a given gas, stored in a cylinder. This operation is essential to be sure of the accuracy of the measurement, and takes about one hour.

Our mission: for each ship analyzed, we had to position the drone in the heart of the plume of the ferry entering or leaving the port of Marseille, for a minimum of one minute, in order to allow the BH-12 analysis module to acquire enough qualitative data on the composition of the air coming out of the stacks of each ship monitored.Nothing is left to chance.

 

The M200 drone with the BH-12 being calibrated on the Digue du Large, at the GPMM. It is 6:00 am, the first ferries are expected at 6:45 am.  

Technical means used for this measurement campaign: 

• In the air: a Matrice 200 drone carrying the Aeromon BH-12 gas sensor module, operated by a single drone pilot.
• On the ground: a computer connected by internet to the Aeromon BH-12, allowing to see in quasi-direct the level curve of the various gases present in the analyzed air

The M200 UAV with the BH-12 in flight behind the plume of a ship leaving the GPMM of Marseille through the North pass.  

Method of placing the drone in the heart of the smoke plume: To do this, we used the FPV camera of the drone to visualize in real time the positioning of the drone in flight in the smoke emitted – most of the time – at the back of the measured ferry. We say most of the time, because with the wind that sometimes blew quite strong, the plumes were on the side, or spinning. In this case, the quality of the measurement was poor because the wind dissipated the smoke and gases emitted much too quickly to allow time for analysis. The power of Aeromon’s measurement system is to be able to visualize the result of the measurement almost live. During each flight we knew whether we had interesting data or not. Based on the gas level curve displayed on the screen, our pilot followed the directions of the Aeromon engineer and was able to place the drone and the sensor even better in the center of the plume.

The Drone-Pictures remote pilot side by side with the Aeromon technician during each air quality measurement flight. Seawall, South pass at the level of the Vigie Sainte-Marie, Port GPMM in Marseille. La Major in the background.

Permits question : In addition to the usual but nonetheless mandatory prior declarations of flight in urban areas to the Bouches du Rhone prefecture, we had to obtain that of the Port of Marseille and those of the ferry companies that we were going to approach by drone. Each ship’s captain knew that he was going to be potentially overflown by a sniffer drone. This was to prevent any alarm or panic among crews or passengers. Note that we were not authorized to approach these ships at less than 50 meters. The drone – approved to fly in cities or populated areas, equipped as it should be with parachutes, was therefore always kept above the water. A temporary access was granted to us to access and move by car along the Digue du Large, from the south channel to the north channel, at the level of the Phares et Balises building.