Development of a novel and fast XRF instrument for large area heavy metal detection integrated with UAV

The disadvantages of the current chemical and instrumental analysis methods for soil heavy metal pollution are that they have a high detection cost, long cycle times, and may cause secondary pollution. The aims of this study were to improve the rapid detection of soil heavy metal pollution over large areas. This study combined aircraft technology, embedded development, computer software, electronic information, and other technical methods to create a novel solution to the problem, i.e., an integrated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based soil heavy metal pollution rapid detection system (UAV-SHMPRDS) was built. The key technologies required for a rapid detection system were developed, including the development of a hardware system based on a UAV and an X-ray fluorescence spectrum (XRF) analyzer, the design and implementation of a control system software system, and the implementation of a data inversion processing algorithm. Finally, a prototype UAV-SHMPRDS was constructed. Testing showed that the system improved regionalized soil heavy metal pollution detection efficiency. This study provides new solutions for the current problems encountered in the actual rapid detection of soil heavy metal pollution.