Emerging Technologies for HAB Monitoring: Uncrewed Aircraft Sampling of Water and Aerosols in Lake Okeechobee

Authors

• Kayla D. Taylor, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityFollow
• Justin Fratto, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityFollow
• Avinash Muthu Krishnan, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityFollow
• David Zink, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityFollow
• Blake Neal, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityFollow
• Jose Cabrera, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityFollow
• Marc Compere, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityFollow
• Emel Sen-Kilic, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityFollow
• Kevin Adkins, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityFollow

Submitting Campus

Daytona Beach

Student Status

Graduate

Class Project

Daytona Beach: Graduate Student Works

Advisor Name

Kevin Adkins, Ph.D., FRAeS

Abstract/Description

Harmful algal blooms pose significant environmental and socioeconomic threats to many areas in South Florida, including Lake Okeechobee and its distribution canals. These blooms can simultaneously lead to the widespread mortality of aquatic life and to the emergence of public health hazards, which are especially detrimental to the localized economies around Lake Okeechobee that depend highly on fishing and water-related tourism. Lake Okeechobee has been monitored for water quantity and quality for several decades, providing an excellent context and opportunity to test and implement a new generation of bloom sampling techniques. One challenge that has stymied the progress of understanding bloom dynamics is the event-driven nature of data collection, given that blooms often appear and mobilize within days, so collection techniques often miss the initiation of the bloom and cannot sufficiently track a bloom’s movement and growth along a body of water. Compared to traditional hand collection techniques from crewed boats, uncrewed aircraft-borne systems can enhance bloom sampling with automation, precision flight, and machine-level consistency in sampling. This work describes the first-year progress of an interdisciplinary, multi-year project to develop an uncrewed-aircraft-hosted water and aerosol sampling technique for blooms on Lake Okeechobee. The project plans to test the sampling techniques and collect samples across two summer and two fall field campaigns. The engineering design process of the techniques is presented, including initial testing and validation results of the techniques on an experimental body of water in Volusia County, FL. Finally, results from the first of three planned summer field campaigns are presented.

Document Type

Presentation without Video

Publication/Presentation Date

10-28-2026

Sponsorship/Conference/Institution

13th U.S. Symposium on Harmful Algae

Location

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

AERO Commons Citation

Taylor, K. D., Fratto, J., Krishnan, A. M., Zink, D., Neal, B., Cabrera, J., Sen-Kilic, E., Compere, M., & Adkins, K. A. (2026, October 28). Emerging Technologies for HAB Monitoring: Uncrewed Aircraft Sampling of Water and Aerosols in Lake Okeechobee. 13th U.S. Symposium on Harmful Algae, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA.