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ResearchDrones.com is Online!

ConservationDrones — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 15:47:50 +0000

Conservation Drones in Scotland

ConservationDrones — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:56:14 +0000

ResearchDrones and ConservationDrones recently went to the amazingly beautiful Caerlaverock wetland area in Scotland. We were helping the Scottish Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust explore the potential of conservation drones for their conservation work. In the video you can see aerial images and footages of wildlife, vegetation and even a castle. There is also a preliminary land cover map (mosaic) created from images acquired during the flights.

Droning in Cambodia: Training Birdlife, ELIE, CI & WCS

ConservationDrones — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:45:22 +0000

Simon Wunderli from ResearchDrones and Serge Wich from ConservationDrones were in Cambodia in April 2013 for BirdLife, Elephants Livelihood Environment Initiative (ELIE), Conservation International (CI) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Featuring the ResearchDrones MAJA C model.

3D Model of Oil Palm Landscape created with Drone Imagery

ConservationDrones — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:53:39 +0000

3D model and fly-through created by Serge Wich using PIX4D and ESRI 3D ArcScene. Drone Imagery from Keeyen Pang. This is a 3D model animation of an oil palm mosaic in Sabah. A subset of the aerial images was processed using PIX4D imaging software to generate a digital Surface Elevation Model (SEM) and orthomosaic. Another software, ESRI 3D ArcScene, was then used to drape the orthomosaic over the SEM, and to create the fly-through animation.

See: http://ConservationDrones.org

Tiger Drone Test Flight Video

ConservationDrones — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 14:37:48 +0000

Airframe: Finwing Universeye Penguin
Autopilot: APM 2.5+ with Power module
GPS: 3DR LEA 6
Telemetry: 3DR 915 Mhz
Motor: Finwing stock M2220 1350kv
Propeller: Master Airscrew 3-bladed 9 x 7 Pusher
ESC: Finwing stock 40 A (5V/3A BEC)
Battery: Turnigy 5000 mAh
Radio: Turnigy 9X stock
Camera: GoPro Hero 1 and iPhone
Location: Near Princeton, NJ
Pilot: LP Koh
iPhone footage: J Choo
Video editing: LP Koh

Princeton Tiger Drone!

ConservationDrones — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:14:15 +0000

Lian Pin has just moved to New Jersey to begin his year-long sabbatical at Princeton University, his alma mater. He has just finished building the first Conservation Drone in America, which is called (what else!) the Tiger Drone, after Princeton University’s mascot! Here are some sneak peek photos of the Tiger Drone, which is based on the Finwing Penguin airframe. It will be test flown in the coming days when the weather gets better.

Lian Pin will be using this drone for demonstration flights in the US, including one for a class at Duke University in the Spring. He will also be helping a water supply protection team in Massachusetts explore the use of conservation drones as a fowl deterrent tool in reservoirs.

*A big thank you to Joshua Ott who donated some much needed equipment to get Lian Pin started in the US!

Know thy ‘enemy’: Oil Palm Landscape Mapped by Drone

ConservationDrones — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 15:07:51 +0000

Keeyen (our Asia team member) used his Skywalker 1900 equipped with an APM 2 and Canon S100 to map an oil palm estate owned by a friend. Keeyen’s Skywalker was able to track the waypoints extremely well even in strong crosswind conditions.

The entire landscape was mapped in just a single mission, in which the drone flew for about 30 minutes for a distance of 16 km, covering about 200 ha of the landscape from 300 m above ground. The Canon camera was programmed to snap a picture every three seconds.

This mosaic was stitched together from a subset of 172 images using AutoPanoGiga. The result is quite promising.

A Story About Madagascar From Aboard A Drone

ConservationDrones — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 07:47:05 +0000

This is a 15-minute short film about Zuzana’s journey across parts of Madagascar with a drone, shining a spotlight on environmental and livelihood issues on the red island. It is a fascinating and personal behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of conducting drone missions in the tropics. Zuzana had never operated a drone nor even flown a remote controlled plane before.

Zuzana is an ecologist based at a Swiss university, and a PhD student of Lian Pin Koh, who is co-founder of ConservationDrones.org. This Youtube film is also Zuzana’s first attempt at video production and editing.

Madagascar Drone Missions

ConservationDrones — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 20:50:26 +0000

Madagascar Team Leader and Drone operator:
Zuzana Burivalova (PhD candidate)
Applied Ecology & Conservation Lab, ETH Zurich

With support from:
Dr Martin Bauert, ZOO Zurich
Wildlife Conservation Society Madagascar
Madagascar National Parks
Tom Allnutt, UC Berkeley
Edward Louis, Omaha ZOO and Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership
Pierre and Maria Bester, Masoala Forest Lodge
Jao Aridy, Madagascar National Parks
Nandi Fatro, Université d’Antananarivo

Video diary: Drone training in Odzala, Congo

ConservationDrones — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 06:44:19 +0000

0:36 Mission planning
1:32 Takeoff
1:46 On-board cam takeoff
2:08 low flyby
2:53 Landing
3:47 Auto take off from platform
4:40 Spotting fires
5:40 Landing
6:17 Debriefing
6:47 Elephant pictures

Video editing by Simon Wunderli (ResearchDrones.com)