As part of a research project of the "Information and Communication Engineering" Master’s degree program, EI and IEM department, a hexacopter was modified with an additional communication and geolocation module. This drone can now be utilized for air quality monitoring in future projects.

With this module, sensor data gathered in midair can be sent to the Cloud of the IoT laboratory of the EI department via wireless communication, then saved in a database, and displayed in real time via georeferencing by utilizing Mapbox.

In a first test operation at the gliding area between Wieseck and Rödgen (Middle Hesse region), the CPU temperature was successfully transmitted and displayed in real time. The measurement data combined with GPS coordinates are visualized via maps (refer to the images above).

This exciting project directly demonstrates how the utilization of IoT protocols and Cloud services contributes to the efficient development of new applications for the Internet of Things. The project was supervised by our professors, Birkel (EI dept) and Steffens (LSE dept).

For further information, please refer to our poster covering the development of the hexacopter as well as the Bluemix and Mapbox architecture.