Clark Methane Map

There was a sudden smell in Clark Magnet High School, and I wondered if that smell was from a gas leak. I inferred that it was methane gas since there was a gas leak nearby. For that reason I wanted to know if the school environment was safe for students.

In order to determine if my school has safe levels of methane in the air, a device that measures methane gas was required. I was able to acquire an Inspire 2 UAV drone from school, and build an Arduino device that measures methane concentrations. Using this equipment I was able to monitor methane emissions and create an interpolation map to show potential problem areas at Clark Magnet High school. 

The goal of this project is to measure the methane levels in Anderson W Clark High School. As well as to determine if the methane levels are safe for students in Clark.

The cube payload or CubeSat is the device I created that would be able to measure methane gas. I made the device using Arduino devices, and also programmed them. It is powered on by a 3.7 volt battery, and stores all the collected data in a 32 GB micro SD card.

The CubeSat collects data such as methane, GPS location, temperature, humidity, pressure, illuminance, VOC gases, and CO2.

The ARUDINO MKR CARRIER is the micro controller of the whole device and holds the battery and SD card.

The MKR ENV SHIELD is able to find the temperature, humidity, pressure, and illuminance.

The SPGP30 CO2 and VOC SENSOR finds the VOC gases and CO2.

The MKR WIFI 1010 allows all the devices to connect to the internet so they can be coded.

The MKR GPS Shield is a GPS that tracks the location of the device.

The MQ5 SENSOR, the most important sensor finds the methane gas.

The CubeSat is secured in a blue cubic housing with 10 cm sides, and it was designed using CAD.

The CubeSat housing was 3D printed. It is powered on by the battery with the Arduino devices wired and zip-tied securely to the housing.

The Inspire 2 UAV was able to fly in a path around the whole school, while also taking pictures of the flight path. It was able to collect the data with the CubeSat attached. The accessory used to attach the CubeSat to the drone was also 3D prined to fit both the drone and Cube Sat.

With the help of Site Scan, the drone was programmed to fly in a path around the school to collect the methane levels on the school. After flying the drone through Clark, it was also mapped using Site Scan.

The map below shows the path of the drone through out the school.

The map below shows hill shadings of the school to show the elevations of the whole school. It also shows an orthomosaic map of Clark to show what the school currently looks like as of now.

After flying the drone, I was able to use the collected methane data and map it using Site Scan.

The map shows the collected methane data from Clark Magnet High School and its buildings. The points on the map are buildings of the school. The darker red areas show the most methane levels, and the blue area shows the low methane levels.

The points on the map below display locations of the school. The legend icon on the bottom left shows the methane data measurements of each color.

The map below displays the standard deviation of the methane data collected, and the legend icon is on the bottom left corner. The darker colors show a higher level of standard deviation, while the lighter colors show a lower level of standard deviation.

According to OSHA, the maximum recommended safe methane levels are 1,000,000 ppb. The methane maps displays that there are no areas with over 1,000,000 ppb. The highest amount of methane level is about 300 ppb. The lowest amount is about 100 ppb. The map shows that the school does not have unsafe methane levels.

As a result the methane levels in Clark Magnet High School are not harmful, and so the environment in the school is safe for students. The data collected from this mission shows that the air quality in the school is harmless.