Internet of Drones System for Real-Time Wireless Water Quality Sensing, 2-D Mapping, 3-D Depth Profiling, and Intelligent Sampling

This article presents an Internet-of-Drones (IoD)-enabled system for real-time, high-resolution, in-situ water quality sensing, sampling, 2-D mapping, and 3-D depth profiling from discrete sensing. Unlike isolated mooring platforms and stationary sensor buoys, our Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platform features a modular IoD architecture with wireless communication for adaptive sampling, parameter mapping, and real-time monitoring. The system integrates pH, temperature, turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), and depth sensors within a single-actuator multi-cartridge vessel that collects samples via TDS, depth, and ML-based triggers into four 50mL tubes. The proposed embedded system incorporates LoRa/LoRaWAN for low-power telemetry and LTE for wireless data transmission, with SD card logging, GPS geo-tagging, and Real-time Clock (RTC) synchronization. A high-resolution 3-D interpolation framework is implemented that reconstructs water quality fields from UAV-based missions over a 0.8m × 0.8m × 1m volume and a comprehensive 2-D mapping over a 180m × 180m area. The system incorporates a smart sampling logic based on predefined thresholds (e.g., TDS and depth triggers), along with a machine–learning–assisted mode for adaptive chlorophyll-a detection and real-time decision-making. Comprehensive field tests at the Lake Erie digital test bed validate system performance.

Recommended citation: SS. F. Hagh et al., "Internet of Drones System for Real-Time Wireless Water Quality Sensing, 2-D Mapping, 3-D Depth Profiling, and Intelligent Sampling," in IEEE Internet of Things Journal, doi: 10.1109/JIOT.2026.3680895 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11474894