Real Time Biological Threat Agent Detection with a Surface Plasmon Resonance Equipped Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

• Main Author: Palframan, Mark C.
• Other Authors: Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: Virginia Tech 2013
• Subjects: Surface Plasmon Resonance; Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; Biological Threat Agent; Aerial Sampling; Biological Sensor
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/23241

A system was developed to perform real-time biological threat agent (BTA) detection<br />with a small autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Biological sensors just recently<br />reached a level of miniaturization and sensitivity that made UAV integration a feasible task.<br />A Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) biosensor was integrated for the first time into a small<br />UAV platform, allowing the UAV platform to collect and then quantify the concentration<br />of an aerosolized biological agent in real-time. A sensor operator ran the SPR unit through<br />a groundstation laptop and was able to wirelessly view detection results in real time. An<br />aerial sampling mechanism was also developed for use with the SPR sensor. The collection<br />system utilized a custom impinger setup to collect and concentrate aerosolized particles.<br />The particles were then relocated and pressurized for use with the SPR sensor. The sampling<br />system was tested by flying the UAV through a ground based plume of water soluble<br />dye. During a second flight test utilizing the onboard SPR sensor, a sucrose solution was<br />autonomously aerosolized, collected, and then detected by the combined sampling and SPR<br />sensor subsystems, validating the system\'s functionality. The real-time BTA detection system<br />has paved the way for future work quantifying biological agents in the atmosphere and<br />performing source localization procedures. === Master of Science