A Heterogeneous Robotics Team for Large-Scale Seismic Sensing

Seismic surveying requires placing a large number of sensors (geophones) in a grid pattern, triggering a seismic event, and recording vibration readings. The goal of the surveying is often to locate subsurface resources. Traditional seismic surveying employs human laborers for sensor placement and retrieval. The major drawbacks of surveying with human deployment are the high costs and time, and risks to humans due to explosives, terrain, and climatic conditions. We propose an autonomous, heterogeneous sensor deployment system using unmanned aerial vehicles to deploy mobile and immobile sensors. The proposed system begins to overcome some of the problems associated with traditional systems. This paper provides detailed analysis and comparison with traditional survey techniques. Hardware experiments and simulations show promise for automation reducing cost and time. Autonomous aerial systems will have a substantial contribution to make in future seismic surveys.