Online Localization of Radio-Tagged Wildlife with an Autonomous Aerial Robot System

Cliff, Oliver M.; Fitch, Robert; Sukkarieh, Salah; Saunders, D. A.; Heinsohn, Robert

doi:10.15607/rss.2015.xi.042

Cited by 76 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Other efforts have focused specifically on the case of tracking radio-tagged fish Leonardo et al 2013;Jensen et al 2014), including mathematical modeling, computer simulations, the design of a UAS-borne telemetry tracking payload and live flight tests (without real animals). Cliff et al (2015) most recently demonstrated real-time autonomous localization of radio-tagged noisy miners (Manorina melanocephala) at short range by a multirotor UAS. It should be noted that beyond technological challenges, a potential major impediment to UAS-based wildlife telemetry tracking is the regulation of airspace: presumably the technique would routinely require flying the UAS beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) of ground operators, a practice that is currently heavily regulated in most developed countries.…”

Section: Uas For Autonomous Wildlife Telemetry Trackingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildlife research and management methods in the 21st century: Where do unmanned aircraft fit in?

Chabot

Bird

2015

J. Unmanned Veh. Sys.

218

183

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Since the turn of the century, emerging unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have found increasingly diverse applications in wildlife science as convenient, very highresolution remote sensing devices. Achieved or conceptualized applications include optical surveying and observation of animals, autonomous wildlife telemetry tracking, and habitat research and monitoring. As the technology continues to progress and interest from the wildlife science community grows, there may yet be much untapped potential for UAS to contribute to the discipline. We present a review of the published primary literature on the application of UAS in wildlife science and related fields. This is followed by a systematic review of the broader wildlife science literature published since the turn of the century to assess where UAS are likely to make important contributions going forward based on the trends that have emerged thus far. UAS, in particular small lightweight models, are generally well suited for collecting data at an intermediate spatial scale between what is easily coverable on the ground and what is economically coverable with conventional aircraft. They are particularly useful for monitoring wildlife and habitats in places that are difficult to access or navigate from the ground, as well as approaching sensitive or aggressive species.Key words: aerial survey, conservation, remotely piloted aircraft system, unmanned aerial vehicle, drone, wildlife monitoring.Résumé : Depuis le début du siècle, les nouveaux systèmes d'aéronefs sans pilote (UAS), en tant qu'appareils de télédétection de haute résolution pratiques, ont donné lieu à de plus en plus d'applications diverses en science de la faune. Les applications réalisées ou conceptualisées comprennent l'inventaire et l'observation optiques des animaux, la localisation autonome de la faune par télémétrie et la recherche et la surveillance des habitats. À mesure que la technologie continue de progresser et que l'intérêt de la part du milieu scientifique du domaine de la faune croît, la contribution des UAS à la discipline pourra augmenter, car il peut y avoir encore beaucoup de potentiel à exploiter. Nous présentons un examen de la littérature primaire publiée portant sur l'application des UAS dans les domaines de la science de la faune et connexes. Un examen systématique de l'ensemble de la littérature de la science de la faune publiée depuis le début du siècle s'ensuit dans le but d'évaluer, d'après les tendances qui ont émergé jusqu'à maintenant, où les UAS vont possiblement faire des contributions à l'avenir. Les UAS, en particulier les petits modèles légers, sont bien adaptés à la collecte de données à une échelle spatiale intermédiaire entre ce qui est facilement saisi sur le terrain et ce qui est saisi à l'aide d'un aéronef traditionnel. Ils sont particulièrement utiles pour la surveillance de la faune et des habitats dans les endroits difficiles à accéder ou à naviguer à partir du sol, ainsi que pour s'approcher des espèces sensibles ou agressives.

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Section: Uas For Autonomous Wildlife Telemetry Trackingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildlife research and management methods in the 21st century: Where do unmanned aircraft fit in?

Chabot

Bird

2015

J. Unmanned Veh. Sys.

218

183

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“…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. 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: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 55%

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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“…This change has started happening, at a small but increasing scale (Pimm et al, 2015, Marvin et al, 2016Snaddon et al, 2013). More and more, conservation researchers and practitioners are not content with simply looking for existing technological tools, but rather actively seek to design and produce new and innovative solutions to tackle specific needs, from relatively simple yet useful devices (e.g., smart nest box monitoring system, Zárybnická, Kubizňák, Šindelář, & Hlaváč, 2016; low-cost open-source programmable acoustic logger, Hill et al, 2018) to complex systems (e.g., large-scale realtime monitoring of elephant movement behaviour, Wall, Wittemyer, Klinkenberg, & Douglas-Hamilton, 2014; Unmanned Aerial System to automatically locate radio-tagged wildlife, Cliff, Fitch, Sukkarieh, Saunders, & Heinsohn, 2015). Such solutions usually involve interdisciplinary teams of conservationists/ecologists and engineers/computer scientists.…”

Section: Facilitating Small-scale Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation technology: The next generation

Berger‐Tal

Lahoz‐Monfort

2018

CONSERVATION LETTERS

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Attitudes among conservation biologists toward technological innovations and solutions have changed over the years from mistrusting and dismissive to widely accepting. However, the time has come for the conservation community to move from being technology consumers to become innovation leaders and to actively seek to create novel technologies to provide conservation tools and solutions. This challenging but critical mind-set change requires thinking outside the box to establish and support the necessary bridges between the conservation community, technologists in both the public and the private sectors, and policy makers. The ingredients already exist, but success hinges on an open mind to new types of interactions, and bold but coordinated movements to nurture the organisational ecosystem in which such collaborations can thrive and be funded.

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Online Localization of Radio-Tagged Wildlife with an Autonomous Aerial Robot System

Cited by 76 publications

References 28 publications

Wildlife research and management methods in the 21st century: Where do unmanned aircraft fit in?

Wildlife research and management methods in the 21st century: Where do unmanned aircraft fit in?

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

Conservation technology: The next generation

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