Unmanned Surface Vehicles Used for Water Quality Monitoring

Water is an essential element for sustaining life, making the continuous monitoring of aquatic resources a critical task. Advances in technology have paved the way for modern systems that enable water quality monitoring with lower labor requirements and reduced operational time. Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), whether remotely operated or fully autonomous, serve as mobile platforms capable of collecting data from various locations within lakes, rivers, seas, and other water bodies. Their mobility and flexibility provide significant benefits, especially in large-scale or inaccessible regions. This paper reviews USV-based water quality monitoring systems and analyzes the hardware and software components used in their development. The study focuses on microcontrollers, storage units, propulsion and navigation techniques, sensor configurations, positioning systems, and energy management strategies. Furthermore, it examines the design and functionality of control station interfaces utilized for operating USVs and visualizing real-time environmental data.