Drone-Based System to Reduce Air Pollution Using Inexpensive Materials

Abstract

Outside, polluted air contains many particles that are harmful to all organisms. Currently, there are no reliable, efficient, or effective ways to clean outside air pollution. This paper describes an early attempt to create a drone-based pollution vacuum cleaner that uses inspiration from the tornado’s Fibonacci spiral shape’s ability to create powerful vacuums. By mounting various Fibonacci spirals onto a drone, the aim was to create a vacuum that can collect, and filter simulated polluted air. The reduction in pollution particles was measured with an Air Quality Index (AQI) meter.

The engineering process involved:

1. 3D printing and designing Fibonacci-shaped spirals with varying degrees of curvature.
2. Testing various motors and spirals and their efficacy in vacuuming air into the filters.
3. Testing the vacuum effect on the drone’s ability to fly

The process compared the effectiveness of the spirals based on their improvement of the AQI in the simulated polluted environment. The wide spiral (Spiral #1) is 1.5cm in width, and 1cm in height with 5729.57 degrees of curvature resulting in the most reduced AQI, from 500 to a healthy breathable number in 15 minutes. In addition, the drone ascended 3 meters while withstanding the vacuuming effect coming from the attached spiral. The project utilizes natural designs such as the Fibonacci spiral shape of a tornado on a smaller scale as a prototype for an improved air filter. For further research, the plan is to make the drones autonomous and test more spirals using different materials.