The primary challenge that has been faced thus far with the acquisition of Methane leakage data is the manpower involved in obtaining this data. Traditionally it would assume that a living person would need to proceed to every location at which the leakage is presumed or along the entire length of a pipeline, on foot.
This is evidently extremely costly and time-consuming which is a problem that a drone could easily solve.
Previously methane leak detection has been done also by ground-based laser systems, as one could imagine these systems are immovable and very expensive.
The suggested solution to this problem is utilizing the exact same sensor that the human on the ground would utilize and mounting this to a drone. By doing so the drone is able to move much quicker between sampling points, therefore covering much more distance over time.
All of this could be programmatically done. furthermore, decreasing human demand or intervention. Where a team of three or more were previously required, a drone and one person could quite easily conduct the same task.
This project involved performing a technical feasibility study into the development of a drone for the acquisition of methane leakage data:
