Spectroscopy combining base stations and unmanned aerial vehicles
AssigneeUniversity of South Carolina
InventorsMichael L. Myrick, Nikolaos Vitzilaios, Michael Hodgson, Bruce A. Davis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A spectroscopy system including a base station having a reflecting telescope and a laser light source coupled to the telescope, the laser providing an outgoing light signal; at least one Unmanned Aerial Vehicle containing a mobile retroreflector configured to receive the light signal from the laser and return a light signal back to the telescope; a detector to record the intensity of the returning light signal; and optical components for spectroscopic measurements, the optical components utilizing the intensity of the returning light signal, revealing the presence of a chosen narrow band for the purpose of detecting a target.
Claims16
A spectroscopy system comprising:
- a base station comprising:
- a reflecting telescope and a laser light source coupled to the telescope, the laser providing an outgoing light signal;
- a detector to record intensity of a returning light signal;
- and
- optical components for spectroscopic measurements, the optical components utilizing the intensity of the returning light signal, revealing the presence of a chosen narrow band for the purpose of detecting a target;
- at least one Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) containing at least one optical detector configured to receive the light signal from the laser and return the light signal back to the telescope via at least one radio transponder to increase range of the UAV;
- and
- at least one sensor configured to form a raster-scan pattern of sensor measurements to build at least one low-resolution image of a gas plume to determine a total volume of gas release by the gas plume and to compute an amount of material released with the gas plume as well as to predict downwind exposure from the amount of material released by the gas plume.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.