‘Drone’: technically correct, popularly accepted, socially acceptable: Different fields use different terms, but by changing its title, the journal Drone Systems and Applications (formerly the Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems) is advocating for the… Continue reading
Recently a drone, called Mamba, was used to collect plants growing on cliffs. A very creative and exciting application of drones. You can read about the study in the scientific paper here. The… Continue reading
Drones are part of a set of technologies used in conservation. Our open access paper describes a number of technologies that are used to support primate conservation. You can download the paper here:… Continue reading
Drones are part of a whole array of technologies (e.g. camera traps, acoustic sensors, loggers, satellites) that can be used as tools to support conservation efforts. Alex Piel and I were fortunate enough… Continue reading
In an open-access paper led by Geison Mesquita the steps to build a low-cost DIY fixed wing drones are clearly explained for non-engineers. This is a great resource for the conservation community.
In April of this year we published a paper on using neural networks for object detection in video images from drones in near real time. We used a DJI Mavic 2 Pro for… Continue reading
The conservationdrones team just returned from a drone training in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. You can find more details here.
Next Generation ConservationDrones Long Range VTOL The next generation ConservationDrone is capable of vertical take-off and landing or VTOL in full auto mode and fly a distance of 70 KM. We believe this… Continue reading
Sol Milne led a new paper titled”Drivers of Bornean Orangutan Distribution across a Multiple-Use Tropical Landscape” that has been published today in Remote Sensing. It is open access and you can download it… Continue reading
The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Liverpool John Moores University collaborate on a project to survey the critically endangered bandro lemur population and habitat with drones. A video of its habitat can be… Continue reading
For a project on automated orangutan nest detection on drone images we are looking for a machine learning expert who is interested in conservation to be part of our drone and machine learning… Continue reading
Geison Mequita led this new study in Current Zoology on swifts in Brazil where we examined the effect of a small multirotor on swift behaviour.
We have been working hard on the ConservationAI website. It has some new models on there to detect species. The system can be used for drone and camera trap data. It also allows… Continue reading
It has been quiet here but we have not been stopping our drone work. In collaboration with Carl Chalmers, Paul Fergus, and Steve Longmore we have been working on a site to start… Continue reading
Building on our conservation work the Liverpool John Moores team is now applying the things we have learned fro our conservation work in the search and rescue setting. Claire Burke led a recent… Continue reading
Flying drones (DJI Mavic Enterprise) in preparation for workshop: “Developing Automated Detection and Monitoring of Peat Fires in Indonesia with Thermal Cameras under Drones”. A collaboration between UPT CIMTROP UPR, Borneo Nature Foundation,… Continue reading
New position at the Borneo Nature Foundation for Drone and GIS coordinator. See details here.
Some flying was done in West Java and showed how much plastic there is on some of the beaches and in the sea. View the video here.
For people interested in a taught masters with a drone component. Check out our new MSc for researchers interested in environmental science and drones here We also still have the Wildlife Conservation and… Continue reading
The paperback of the Conservation Drones book was published a few days ago by Oxford University Press. For an overview of some of the projects and the issues featured in the book see… Continue reading
In a new paper we provide the results of our research on detecting orangutans with a thermal imaging camera under a multirotor in Sabah. ABSTRACT We investigated the efficacy of a drone equipped… Continue reading
Denise Spaan led a new paper on how drones equipped with a thermal imaging camera can facilitate counting spider monkeys.
Leonard Hambrecht led our new paper on detecting poachers with drones carrying a thermal imaging camera. The paper titled “Detecting ‘poachers’ with drones: Factors influencing the probability of detection with TIR and RGB imaging… Continue reading
We have a new project up on Zooniverse where you can help us with identifying animals in thermal infrared images. We will then use these images to train machine learning algorithms to automate… Continue reading
Six years after we started conservation drones we have now written up a book about our own work and that of many of our colleagues on the usage of drones for conservation. You… Continue reading
Drone footage of a large heronry could shed new light on bird populations across the country. The remarkable footage, shot at the Woodland Trust-owned Parrs Wood at Grappenhall Heys in Warrington, Cheshire, shows… Continue reading
Colleagues in the US have been using drones for monitoring of invasive plants. The Lake McMurtry team was asked to survey the spread of a recently identified invasive aquatic plant called Yellow Floating… Continue reading
Sol Milne, a PhD at the University of Aberdeen, started a great citizen-science project in which people can help locate orangutan nests on photos taken from a drone flying above the forests in… Continue reading
We are keen to feature work from other projects that use drones for conservation as well. Feel free to send us some text and a video such as the one featured here: MACHINE… Continue reading
Some preliminary footage taken with a Thermal camera from TeAx Technology and a RGB MAPIR camera that were attached under a F550. Part of a study to assess the factors that determine detection of… Continue reading
A new exciting project in Brazil to use drones to find the Amazon river dolphin. The video was created by the fantastic WWF Brazil team who have been flying there to find the… Continue reading
At the Wildlife Connections Festival on the 16th and 17th of September we flew a multi-rotor drone to show the public one of the technologies that Chester Zoo and the partners it supports are… Continue reading
Members of the conservationdrones team authored a chapter titled “Wings for Wildlife: the use of Conservation Drones, challenges and opportunities” in the new book The Good Drone by Kristin Sandvik and Maria Jumbert.
Last May the Conservation Drones team revisited the Issa region in western Tanzania to continue the collaboration with the Ugalla Primate Project, Jane Goodall Institute Tanzania. For some of the land-cover analyses we teamed up with and EnviroDrone. The Conservation… Continue reading
Keeyen Pang from the ConservationDrones Asia team developed a system that can fly for a 100 kilometers. It can be used as a mapping or video system and is based on a Skywalker… Continue reading
The Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program has been collaborating with conservationdrones to protect the Sumatran orangutan. They have now been nominated for the UAV Humanitarian Award. Watch the video here.
Many of you that are reading our blog have started to use drones for conservation purposes and we would like to use our site as a platform to showcase your work as well.… Continue reading
ConservationDrones.org provided images to Sterling Geo to develop an automated method for counting palm trees from UAV imagery using ERDAS IMAGINE 2015 Spatial Modeller. For further information visit http://www.sterlinggeo.com The Sterling Geo team… Continue reading
From 7-8 July the 2nd UAV and Environmental Research Conference will be held at in Liverpool. The conference is co-organized by Serge Wich from ConservationDrones.org and LJMU. More information is available here. Places are… Continue reading
To assist in protecting the Central Suriname Nature Reserve we are collaborating with Conservation International Suriname. Conservation International prepared this video about the project.
Dutch UAS and ConservationDrones are combining expertise to develop a fixed-wing drone with a user-interface that automatically detects people and rhinos. The aim is to provide a ranger with a tool that will… Continue reading
The conservationdrones team (Brenden Duffy and Serge Wich) returned to Scotland more than a year after the first trip. The aim of this trip was to train Dr. Larry Griffin of the Wildfowl… Continue reading
We often get asked whether thermal imaging cameras can be used on drones. A while ago we tested a FLIR camera. Now we tested a Raven 640 from Xenics (http://www.xenics.com). The camera worked… Continue reading
We were curious whether GoPro images could be used for a photomosaic using the Iris quadcopter and Pix4Dmaper. So we put it to the tests and you can see the results in… Continue reading
A PhD position is available for UAV research at Liverpool John Moores University. This PhD will be co-supervised by Serge Wich from ConservationDrones and be closely linked to work the ConservaitonDrones team is doing.… Continue reading
