pH Sensor for BlueROV2

General Discussion
1

Hi everyone!

I am Kay McGuinness from ANB Sensors. For the last 5 years we have been developing calibration free pH sensors for ocean/water monitoring. We are now ready to commercialise our sensor, which is small, adaptable, all solid state, but it’s main USP is that it doesn’t need calibrating. Most pH sensors suffer from reference electrode drift, which means frequent recalibration with known buffers. Our patented technology overcomes this issue and allows for smart, maintenance free sensing.

We had a trip to California in February to do the first trials of the ANB Sensors S1100 pH sensor on the BlueROV2. Kevin and Rusty were a great help, showing us the ins and outs of the vehicle, mounting and connecting the sensor.

BR
BR742×217 113 KB

You can see in the middle picture us polishing back the electrode head - this regenerates the sensor for further use - no calibration required! Then, after multiple uses, this solid state sensor head can be easily replaced (like an ink cartridge).

We hit some issues, mainly electrical noise related, but that’s what field trials are for isn’t it?

Anyway, since then, during lockdown, our electronics team have been busy overcoming this and results in our lab tank, using a Blue Robotics thruster, look really promising.

Now we’re looking forward to getting the sensor out there for real.

Are there any early adopters out there that want a fuss free, robust pH sensor that can be deployed easily on the BlueROV2?

4 Likes
2

Greetings Kay, we do mining remedation work on water filled mining pits, some of these have very low pH values (<3). We do deploy a YSI EXO1 Sonde with the pH module via a UAV to collect water column profiles safely from shore. We are developing a version 2 AUV to be able to collect profiles and samples at a slower rate than from the UAV. I’d be interested if you want to discuss, we will be sampling the remainder of the summer at the Berkeley Pit in Butte MT with some very “interesting” water conditions. If it will work in that pit water it should work anywhere. What is the weight of the sensor? Power requirements? How is data stored?

Cheers,
Ian

3

Hi Ian,
Many thanks for reaching out! Lovely to hear you’re starting us off on something easy :upside_down_face: :joy:

We would definitely like to discuss this further with you. My email address is kmcguinness@anbsensors.com

To answer your questions:
Weight: ~ 0.5 Kg
Power requirements: 5 - 20V DC
Data: can be stored on a SD card in the sensor or can be sent to a central system (eg Raspberry pi for BlueRov2 tests above) via RS232 or 485. (wifi is coming, but not available yet!)

Is there any chance you could send us a couple of water samples so we could do some tests?

Cheers,
Kay

4

Hello, Kay

I am interested in the Ph sensor for my bluerov2 , are they still available. Is it an easy plug and play connection?

Also would it display the pH values on the Qground GUI ?

Yours,

Naser