Drone for measuring data representative of amounts of at least two gases present in the atmosphere away from the ground and associated method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12455232-B2
Application number	US-202117914953-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2021
Priority date	Mar 27, 2020
Publication date	Oct 28, 2025
Grant date	Oct 28, 2025

Abstract

This drone comprises a sensor for measuring representative data, comprising at least one measurement cell that is open to the atmosphere, at least a first laser source configured to inject, into the measurement cell, a first laser beam at a first wavelength characteristic of a first gas to be detected and a second laser source configured to inject, into the measurement cell, a second laser beam at a second wavelength characteristic of a second gas to be detected. The measuring sensor comprises a detector common to the two laser sources, said detector being configured to detect a first measurement signal originating from the measurement cell and resulting from injection of the first laser beam into the measurement cell and a second measurement signal originating from the measurement cell and resulting from injection of the second laser beam into the measurement cell.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A drone for measuring data representative of amounts of at least two gases present in the atmosphere away from the ground, comprising:
a chassis;
at least one propeller configured to allow the chassis to move through the atmosphere, away from the ground;
at least one representative data measuring sensor the said at least one representative data measuring sensor being borne by the chassis;
a controller configured to control the at least one representative data measuring sensor to measure the representative data, said controller being borne by the chassis,
the at least one representative data measuring sensor being configured to measure data representative of amounts of at least two gases present in the atmosphere, the at least one representative data measuring sensor comprising at least one measurement cell that is open to the atmosphere, and, for the at least one measurement cell, at least a first laser source configured to inject, into the at least one measurement cell, a first laser beam at a first wavelength characteristic of a first gas to be detected and a second laser source configured to inject, into the same at least one measurement cell, a second laser beam at a second wavelength characteristic of a second gas to be detected, the at least one representative data measuring sensor comprising a detector common to the first and second laser sources, said common detector being configured to detect a first measurement signal originating from the at least one measurement cell and resulting from injection of the first laser beam into the at least one measurement cell and a second measurement signal originating from the at least one measurement cell and resulting from injection of the second laser beam into the at least one measurement cell, and
the drone comprising a temperature-measuring sensor and a pressure-measuring sensor placed in the at least one measuring cell.

2. The drone according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to implement sequential and successive injections of the first laser beam into the at least one measurement cell, then of the second laser beam into the at least one measurement cell, without injection of the second laser beam into the at least one measurement cell, when the first laser beam is injected into the at least one measurement cell, and without injection of the first laser beam into the at least one measurement cell, when the second laser beam is injected into the at least one measurement cell, respectively.

3. The drone according to claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to selectively and sequentially activate the first laser source and the second laser source to implement the sequential and successive injections.

4. The drone according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one measurement cell comprises two mirrors located facing and away from each other and defining therebetween a measurement cavity, and two holders bearing the two mirrors, respectively, the laser sources and the detector being joined to the holders, away from the measurement cavity.

5. The drone according claim 1 , wherein the first laser source and the second laser source are configured to inject, into the at least one measurement cavity, a laser beam of width larger than 1 mm.

6. The drone according to claim 5 , wherein the width of the laser beam is between 3 mm and 6 mm.

7. The drone according to claim 1 , wherein at least one element among the first laser source, the second laser source and the detector is equipped with a metal heat-exchange plate that is swept by an airflow generated by the propeller when the propeller is activated.

8. The drone according to claim 1 , wherein the controller comprises a casing and at least one heat exchanger comprising at least one metal heat-exchange plate, the at least one metal heat-exchange plate protruding from the casing and being swept by an airflow generated by the propeller when the propeller is activated.

9. The drone according to claim 1 , comprising an altitude-measuring sensor borne by the chassis.

10. The drone according to claim 1 , wherein the chassis comprises a plurality of members forming an apertured framework, a first region of the chassis holding the controller, and a second region of the chassis, the second region of the chassis being located away from the first region of the chassis and holding the at least one measurement cell.

11. The drone according to claim 1 , comprising dampers mounted between the chassis and the at least one measurement cell.

12. The drone according to claim 1 , further comprising a data transmitter, said data transmitter being borne by the chassis, the representative data detected by the detector being configured to be transmitted by the data transmitter.

13. The drone according to claim 12 , comprising a memory configured to store representative data collected by the common detector, and an on-board computer located in the chassis and configured to process the representative data collected by the common detector at any given time, to compute amount values of at least two gases at various times, the data transmitter being configured to transmit the amount values computed by the computer.

14. The drone according to claim 1 , having a total mass lower than 10 kg.

15. The drone according to claim 1 , wherein the common detector comprises a single detector sensitive both to a wavelength of the beam emitted by the first laser and to a wavelength of the beam emitted by the second laser source, the common detector being formed of a single component.

16. The drone according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one measurement cell is a direct-laser-absorption-spectroscopy cell.

17. A method for measuring data representative of amounts of at least two gases present in the atmosphere away from the ground, comprising:
flying a drone according to claim 1 through the atmosphere away from the ground;
injecting, using the first laser source, into the at least one measurement cell, a first laser beam at a first wavelength representative of a first gas;
detecting, using the detector common to the two laser sources, a first measurement signal originating from the at least one measurement cell and resulting from the first laser beam injected into the at least one measurement cell;
injecting, using the second laser source, into the at least one measurement cell, a second laser beam at a second wavelength representative of a second gas to be detected; and
detecting, using the detector common to the first and second laser sources, a second signal measured in the at least one measurement cell and resulting from the second laser beam injected into the at least one measurement cell.

18. The drone according to claim 1 , wherein the measuring cell comprises two mirrors carried by respective supports and defining between them a measuring cavity, the temperature-measuring sensor is disposed between the supports, and the pressure-measuring sensor comprises a pressure measuring tube opening into the measuring cavity.

19. A drone for measuring data representative of amounts of at least two gases present in the atmosphere away from the ground, comprising:
a chassis;
at least one propeller configured to allow the chassis to move through the atmosphere, away from the ground;
at least one representative data measuring sensor, the said at least one representative data measuring sensor being borne by the chassis;
a controller configured to control the at least one representative data measuring sensor to measure the representative data,

Assignees

• Centre Nat Rech Scient
• Univ Reims Champagne Ardenne
• Totalenergies Onetech

Inventors

• Donnat Ludovic
• Maunoury Abel
• Joly Lilian
• Decarpenterie Thomas
• Burgalat Jérémie
• Chauvin Nicolas
• Albora Grégory
• Dumelie Nicolas
• Cousin Julien

Classifications

• G01N2201/0214

  Airborne · CPC title

• G01N2021/8578

  Gaseous flow · CPC title

• G01N2021/3133

  with selection of wavelengths before the sample · CPC title

• B64U2101/35

  for science, e.g. meteorology · CPC title

• G01N21/85

  Investigating moving fluids or granular solids · CPC title