Use of Autonomous Vehicles for Drinking Water Monitoring and Management in an Urban Environment

Autonomous vehicles are capable of independent operation, and can be used for monitoring and management in a variety of applications. Autonomous boats were designed and built for monitoring and managing drinking water in an urban reservoir. The autonomous vehicles are driven by paddlewheels or small props, may be solar powered or battery powered, and can be linked to GPS. Temperature and dissolved oxygen are among the parameters that have been measured with the vehicles, while the vehicles have been used to reduce birds on the reservoir, and thus to reduce fecal contamination of drinking water. Machine vision or infrared sensors may be used to detect birds and scaring mechanisms may include physical proximity, movement or squirting of water to drive the birds off the reservoir in a non-fatal and environmentally friendly manner.