tagged w/ good use of drones
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Conservationists have converted a remote-controlled plane into a potent tool for conservation.
Using seed funding from the National Geographic Society, The Orangutan Conservancy, and the Denver Zoo, Lian Pin Koh, an ecologist at the ETH Zürich, and Serge Wich, a biologist at the University of Zürich and PanEco, have developed a conservation drone equipped with cameras, sensors and GPS. So far they have used the remote-controlled aircraft to map deforestation, count orangutans and other endangered species, and get a bird's eye view of hard-to-access forest areas in North Sumatra, Indonesia.
"The main goal of this project is to develop low-cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that every conservation biologist in the tropics can use for surveying forests and biodiversity," said Koh via email. "Drones are already being used for many purposes including the military, agriculture, and even in Hollywood for filming. But they are still not commonly used for conservation purposes."
The reason, says Koh, is the high cost of commercial systems, which can run $10,000-50,000. Koh's first drone cost less than $2,000 and can be carried in a backpack.
"The idea for developing this low-cost drone came to me during one of my field trips to Borneo in 2004," Koh told mongabay.com. "A very exhausting day of fieldwork made me wish for a remote control aircraft that I could send into the forest to do the work for me so that I could take a break the next day."
"The drone is almost fully autonomous, which means it can take-off and fly on autopilot," Koh explained. "The user pre-programs each mission on a laptop computer by clicking waypoints along a planned flight path on a Google Map. Based on this flight path and the onboard sensors (GPS, altitude sensor, airspeed sensor, etc), the drone will take off automatically, fly to every waypoint, and then return to the user. During the mission, the drone can take photographs or videos depending on the camera system installed."
For anyone who has spent hours tracking over rough terrain in the tropical rainforest, the appeal of a conservation drone is immediately obvious.
"This may offer a cost-effective way of counting wildlife over difficult terrain," Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University who runs the conservation non-profit Saving Species, told mongabay.com. "Having imagery of far higher resolution than from satellites is essential for such work and it offers a viable alternative in places where helicopter or plane costs are too high."
There are also scenarios where a drones can be an alternative to satellite imagery.
"Low-cost drones can be an effective alternative to satellite images for mapping the landscape," Koh told mongabay.com. "In fact, drones can perform better than satellite data in cases where an area needs to be mapped in real-time and repeatedly."
To date, Koh and Wich have used the drone in Aras Napal, close to the Gunung Leuser Conservation Area in Sumatra. During their four days of testing, the drone flew 30 missions — collecting hundreds of photos and hours of video — without a single crash. A mission, which typically lasts about 25 minutes, can cover 50 hectares.
Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0223-conservation_drone.html#Tt3J3JBMezsF7ULH.99Conservationists have converted a remote-controlled plane into a potent tool for... more
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