Project Description

  • Start date: 01/10/2018

  • End date: 14/04/2020

  • Duration (months): 18

  • Total budget: € 2.230.000

  • Lab Budget: € 190.000

  • Number of partners: 7

  • Partners: Wide Pilot srl, Università del Salento, ENSU, Ingegneria dei sistemi, CNR, Fondazione CMCC, ISALIT srl.

The project aims at contributing to the reduction of risks for human and environment health, deriving from the presence of pollutants on/in soil, air and water, with the creation of a system of solutions for advanced environmental monitoring. The objective will be achieved with the pursuit of the following specific final objectives:

  1. improving the technologies useful for mapping pollutants by costs, sizes and limits of data acquisition capacity;
  2. reducing identification times of pollutants and waste dispersed on/ in the ground or present in water and air;
  3. reducing the risks for insiders during operations of pollutant detection;
  4. supporting decisions of stakeholders /decision-makers when planning mitigation actions.

The specific objectives will be achieved through the execution of activities aimed at:

  1. realizing prototypes of miniaturized sensors, where possible, low cost, for the acquisition of data on pollutants dispersed in the environment, to be installed on Remote Piloting Aircraft Systems (RPAS, commonly known ad drones) and floating buoys;
  2. Developing methods of detection and analysis to identify by air the burial or dispersion points of pollutants or waste on the ground without excavation;
  3. Developing forecasting models of pollutants diffusion in water, based on a topological approach, using high resolution oceanographic modeling;
  4. Designing software models / solutions that, once acquired data from sensors, implement a Decision Support System (DSS);
  5. Generate new services, also in the cloud, to support users (real time data management, early warning systems).

Furthermore, activities for test and validation of the prototypes and operational pilots will be carried out to demonstrate the realized sub-systems.

The execution of the above activities will enable the creation of a system of solutions, operating in a distinct and complementary manner in all the three environmental reference areas (sea, air and ground).

University of Salento is involved in the project with the Department of Innovation Engineering and the Department of Mathematics and Physics (DMF).

Department of Innovation Engineering. Processes definition and modeling, with reference to detection systems in the terrestrial-aerial field based on drones; realization of a decision support systems (DSS) supporting monitoring missions; mission planning for optimal scan of a specific area/region; development of techniques of autonomous trajectory re-planning; technical georeferencing analysis for measurements with directional or optical sensors.

Department of Mathematics and Physics Aerosol and Climate Laboratory (A&C). Development and production of miniaturized atmospheric particulate samplers for mounting on drones; chemical-physical characterization of atmospheric particulate to identify and characterize pollutants such as OC and EC.

For more information please contact: Francesco Pettinato (francesco.pettinato@unisalento.it)