During the summer of 2025, I developed the next generation of my drone mounted air quality system capable of capturing air quality data in real time. Using an Adafruit Feather RP2040 LoRa microcontroller, the system integrates a few new components from the previous version including CO₂, humidity, pressure, and GPS sensors to collect more detailed environmental data. These measurements are transmitted wirelessly using LoRa to a ground station and then pushed to a live web dashboard, where the data can be visualized in 3D, exported to Google Earth, and analyzed for patterns based on live weather data. In the software I also implemented automated time block-based session detection, early-warning alerts for abnormal readings, and mapping overlays to highlight areas of concern.
This project further demonstrates how low-cost drones can be used to provide high resolution 3D air quality insights, something fixed monitoring stations lack, with potential applications in public health, industrial compliance, and environmental research.