I-Corps: An integrated wide-area unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aeromagnetic survey system targeting orphaned oil and gas wells

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a system capable of accurately detecting, assessing, and plugging methane-emitting orphaned oil and gas wells. This remediation would effectively remove the equivalent of 125,000 cars off the road annually, allowing New York to come closer to its ambitious goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In addition to the environmental benefits of this effort, accurately identifying locations of presently unknown wells would allow for subsequent economic redevelopment in areas where new construction and infrastructure improvement are significantly impeded by the presence of unmarked well sites. In addition, it is anticipated that as unmanned aircraft system platforms are adopted as part of geophysical survey toolkits across multiple industries, the proposed technology will expand to offer additional aeromagnetic survey solutions in the fields of unexploded ordnance detection, geological mapping, mineral exploration, and buried infrastructure analysis.This I-Corps project is based on the development of an automated wide-area unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based geophysical survey system that scans hundreds of acres a day and accurately locates abandoned oil and gas wells year-round in difficult terrains and dense vegetation. While UAV systems have gained recognition and customer demand across multiple sectors has increased, their use in automated geophysical surveys has remained relatively limited. The proposed technology allows the UAVs to acquire, process, interpret, and map datasets, delivering actionable maps to stakeholders that allow subsequent ground verification, classification, and prioritization of wells for remediation. In addition, the technology includes the design of an automated UAV-based aeromagnetic survey system for rapid assessment of large geographical areas for presence of unmarked, abandoned oil and gas wells. Field trials, conducted in close collaboration with environmental regulators, demonstrated that automated UAV aeromagnetic surveys are more efficient than both terrestrial and piloted aeromagnetic surveys; These surveys address a critical technological gap in the effort to detect and map orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.