Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System for Wildlife Radio Collar Tracking

Santos, Gilberto Antonio Marcon dos; Barnes, Zachary; Lo, Eric; Ritoper, Bryan; Nishizaki, Lauren; Tejeda, Xavier; Ke, Alex; Lin, Hung-Hsi; Schurgers, Curt; Lin, Albert Y.; Kastner, Ryan

doi:10.1109/mass.2014.48

Cited by 34 publications

(31 citation statements)

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“…Furthermore, our system (Motus technology and a small UAV) is simpler to use and more affordable than that of Cliff et al (2015), who used a commercial UAV platform coupled with a recording ground station. While dos Santos et al (2014) did use a similar system to ours, our results on live birds in nature confirmed their experimental findings collected under controlled conditions.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 87%

“…However, these studies did not experiment on live animals (dos Santos et al 2014;Cliff et al 2015), while our study presents similar results but with live birds flying free in their natural environment. Furthermore, our system (Motus technology and a small UAV) is simpler to use and more affordable than that of Cliff et al (2015), who used a commercial UAV platform coupled with a recording ground station.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 52%

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A Low-Cost Technique for Radio-Tracking Wildlife Using a Small Standard Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Tremblay

Desrochers

Aubry³

et al. 2017

J. Unmanned Veh. Sys.

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Recent advances in using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to study wildlife offer promise and may improve data collection efficiency, and small UAVs, such as multirotor platforms, are suitable for this task because they are easy to deploy, can fly over terrain that is difficult to access on foot, and can be programmed to follow specific trajectories. The objective of our study was to determine whether a small UAV could be outfitted with a radio receiver to pick up signals from radio-transmitters worn by small forest birds (Catharus bicknelli and C. ustulatus). We compared radio-monitoring using an UAV and a ground-based vehicle. The detection of over 50% of the tagged birds in the 50 m altitude flights is indicative of the real potential of the concept. This is supported by a signal strength significantly stronger and more constant than ground-based signals. The signal receptor experienced no significant interference from the UAV electronics, thus enabling a "clean" set of detections from the birds. Based on these preliminary results, we conclude that UAVs can yield useable data from animals wearing light-weight transmitters. Radio-tracking birds with UAVs presents strong potential for applications in all types of forest stands, or even in the radio-tracking of multiple species or taxa.Key words: radio-telemetry, Bicknell's thrush Catharus bicknelli, Swainson thrush Catharus ustulatus, unmanned aerial vehicle.Résumé : Les récents progrès de l'utilisation des véhicules aériens sans pilote (UAV) pour étudier de la faune sont prometteuses et peuvent améliorer l'efficacité de la collecte des données et de petits UAVs tels que les plates-formes multi-rotors sont intéressants car ils sont faciles à déployer, peuvent voler sur un terrain qui est difficile d'accès et peuvent être programmés pour suivre des trajectoires spécifiques. L'objectif de notre étude était de déterminer si un petit UAV pourrait être équipé d'un récepteur radio pour capter les signaux de radio-émetteurs portés par deux oiseaux forestiers (Catharus bicknelli et C. ustulatus). Nous avons comparé la radio-surveillance à l'aide d'un UAV et d'un véhicule au sol. La détection de plus de 50 % des oiseaux marqués dans les 50 m vols d'altitude est une indication du potentiel réel de cette application. De plus, nous avons observé une intensité de signal plus forte et plus constante avec les survols d'UAV que les signaux obtenues à partir du sol avec un véhicule terrestre. Aucune interférence significative de l'électronique d'UAV n'a été remarquée, offrant ainsi un ensemble « propre » de détections des signaux des oiseaux.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 52%

A Low-Cost Technique for Radio-Tracking Wildlife Using a Small Standard Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Tremblay

Desrochers

Aubry³

et al. 2017

J. Unmanned Veh. Sys.

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show abstract

“…Drones range from basic models under $2000 to sophisticated multisensor models for six figures of more. Drones are used in several biodiversity applications, including monitoring of forest fire [61], identification of floristic biodiversity of understory vegetation [62], identification of standing dead wood and canopy mortality [63], monitoring invasive species, pests, weeds, and diseases [64], and aerial monitoring of animal species [16,65].…”

Section: Emerging Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Technologies to Conserve Biodiversity

Pimm

Alibhai

Bergl

et al. 2015

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

278

210

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“…Ambient monitoring [58] Temperature sensors mounted inside rabbit cage collect the ambient temperature inside the rabbit cage? [75]. Of note is the importance of visual sensing through cameras, which due to the limited bandwidth of wireless sensor networks has not been deployed to reach their full potential, such as for visual recognition or in-situ image processing.…”

Section: Rabbitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart Computing and Sensing Technologies for Animal Welfare

2017

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Animals play a profoundly important and intricate role in our lives today. Dogs have been human companions for thousands of years, but they now work closely with us to assist the disabled, and in combat and search and rescue situations. Farm animals are a critical part of the global food supply chain, and there is increasing consumer interest in organically fed and humanely raised livestock, and how it impacts our health and environmental footprint. Wild animals are threatened with extinction by human induced factors, and shrinking and compromised habitat. This review sets the goal to systematically survey the existing literature in smart computing and sensing technologies for domestic, farm and wild animal welfare. We use the notion of animal welfare in broad terms, to review the technologies for assessing whether animals are healthy, free of pain and suffering, and also positively stimulated in their environment. Also the notion of smart computing and sensing is used in broad terms, to refer to computing and sensing systems that are not isolated but interconnected with communication networks, and capable of remote data collection, processing, exchange and analysis. We review smart technologies for domestic animals, indoor and outdoor animal farming, as well as animals in the wild and zoos. The findings of this review are expected to motivate future research and contribute to data, information and communication management as well as policy for animal welfare.

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Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System for Wildlife Radio Collar Tracking

Cited by 34 publications

References 1 publication

A Low-Cost Technique for Radio-Tracking Wildlife Using a Small Standard Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

A Low-Cost Technique for Radio-Tracking Wildlife Using a Small Standard Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Emerging Technologies to Conserve Biodiversity

Smart Computing and Sensing Technologies for Animal Welfare

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