Based on the recent technological advances and developments, aerial robotic systems like drones make a growing impact on various areas of our daily life. These autonomous aerial vehicles will be extraordinarily helpful in accessing to extreme or hard-to-reach environments and performing high-risk tasks for humans. Such applications include the use of drones and sensors for monitoring of unstructured environments, such as the Amazonia rainforest. Drones can assist biologists to better understand the impact of the man-made climate change with digital twins of the target ecosystem based on data collection with high spatio-/temporal-resolutions.
A major challenge in drone-assisted autonomous sensor deployment and environmental monitoring is how to minimize environmental footprints of the already deployed sensors after the end of its service life. Current systems used for environmental monitoring are made from non-biodegradable and non-renewable polymers and metals. Recollection of those deployed non-biodegradable sensors will demand a highly dexterous and sophisticated manipulation control with drones. Envisioning a future in which drones will be used to deploy a broad spectrum of environmental sensors in high numbers, there is the need to manufacture such sensing systems from fully biodegradable and sustainable sources, so that the sensors can remain in the target ecosystem and biodegrade into non-harmful by-products without having them to be recollected. Such materials for biodegradable sensing and data transmitting devices include biodegradable metals (e.g. Iron, Magnesium, Zinc), conductive non-toxic particles (e.g. Carbon black, graphite) and biopolymer substrates (e.g. cellulose, PHB).
A conceptual illustration is depicted in Fig. 1 in the attached document. A drone carries a biodegradable transient sensor with an integrated soft robotic gripper to deploy the sensor at the area of interest. The sensing payload is deployed at different tree heights and starts to monitor diverse environmental parameters, such as temperature, PH, humidity, and biodiversity of the target environment.
Based on the recent technological advances and developments, aerial robotic systems like drones make a growing impact on various areas of our daily life. These autonomous aerial vehicles will be extraordinarily helpful in accessing to extreme or hard-to-reach environments and performing high-risk tasks for humans. Such applications include the use of drones and sensors for monitoring of unstructured environments, such as the Amazonia rainforest. Drones can assist biologists to better understand the impact of the man-made climate change with digital twins of the target ecosystem based on data collection with high spatio-/temporal-resolutions.
A major challenge in drone-assisted autonomous sensor deployment and environmental monitoring is how to minimize environmental footprints of the already deployed sensors after the end of its service life. Current systems used for environmental monitoring are made from non-biodegradable and non-renewable polymers and metals. Recollection of those deployed non-biodegradable sensors will demand a highly dexterous and sophisticated manipulation control with drones. Envisioning a future in which drones will be used to deploy a broad spectrum of environmental sensors in high numbers, there is the need to manufacture such sensing systems from fully biodegradable and sustainable sources, so that the sensors can remain in the target ecosystem and biodegrade into non-harmful by-products without having them to be recollected. Such materials for biodegradable sensing and data transmitting devices include biodegradable metals (e.g. Iron, Magnesium, Zinc), conductive non-toxic particles (e.g. Carbon black, graphite) and biopolymer substrates (e.g. cellulose, PHB).
A conceptual illustration is depicted in Fig. 1 in the attached document. A drone carries a biodegradable transient sensor with an integrated soft robotic gripper to deploy the sensor at the area of interest. The sensing payload is deployed at different tree heights and starts to monitor diverse environmental parameters, such as temperature, PH, humidity, and biodiversity of the target environment.
The objective of this project is to develop biodegradable electronics, especially focused on printed RFID and NFC antenna, using biodegradable metals. To do so, a suitable manufacturing technique (e.g., e-beam evaporation) needs to be identified that enables precise thin film geometry manufacturing. Based on the design of existing temperature logging devices, a suitable antenna layout and substrate need to be determined and characterized. The developed antenna is integrated with a commercial tag sensor that features a power supply, a data logger as well as the temperature sensor. Fig. 2 in the attached document gives an image of the commercially available temperature logger in which the biodegradable antennas will be integrated into.
The proposed biodegradable electronics will be developed in close collaboration with the Biodegradable Technologies Lab at TU Delft, such as validation of substrate materials or antenna designs. The developed biodegradable sensor will be combined with a biodegradable deployment unit and deployed to possible tree branches using a drone that also retrieves environmental data from the sensor.
The objective of this project is to develop biodegradable electronics, especially focused on printed RFID and NFC antenna, using biodegradable metals. To do so, a suitable manufacturing technique (e.g., e-beam evaporation) needs to be identified that enables precise thin film geometry manufacturing. Based on the design of existing temperature logging devices, a suitable antenna layout and substrate need to be determined and characterized. The developed antenna is integrated with a commercial tag sensor that features a power supply, a data logger as well as the temperature sensor. Fig. 2 in the attached document gives an image of the commercially available temperature logger in which the biodegradable antennas will be integrated into.
The proposed biodegradable electronics will be developed in close collaboration with the Biodegradable Technologies Lab at TU Delft, such as validation of substrate materials or antenna designs. The developed biodegradable sensor will be combined with a biodegradable deployment unit and deployed to possible tree branches using a drone that also retrieves environmental data from the sensor.
Fabian Wiesemüller
fabian.wiesemueller@empa.ch
PhD Student
Dr. Sukho Song
sukho.song@empa.ch
Groupleader