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Drones / Feed

Used to pick up signals from tracking gear on the ground, collect images of wildlife and habitats from the air, gather acoustic data with specialized hydrophones, or even collect snot samples from whales' blowholes, drones are capable of collecting high-resolution data quickly, noninvasively, and at relatively low cost.

discussion

Infrared filters for drone cameras

I'm interested to know how people are going about acquiring infrared imagery from drones (e.g. to calculate NDVI). There are dedicated cameras out there, and also camera...

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Although not for NDVI but worth a mention for anyone looking at converting a camera into IR only. 

I have had sucess using a DIY filter made out of blank processed camera film from a disposable camera. So long as you can still find somewhere to process the film (or do it yourself) you just cut the processed film (negatives) and replace the digital cameras IR filter (placed over the cameras sensor). This will simply turn the camera into an IR camera only so won't fit your requirement for NDVI but thought that it is worth posting if others are looking at converting a camera or Go-Pro into an IR camera. 

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article

Drones, Orangutans, and Strangler Figs in Malaysian Borneo

Sol Milne
In this case study, WILDLABS member Sol Milne takes us through his Ph.D. work investigating how changing land-use is affecting orangutan distribution in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. With the help of five local research...

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discussion

Multispectral Cameras

We are starting a new drones project at the RSPB to looks at multispectral cameras.  I would love to hear about any experience people have with using these sensors with...

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discussion

Drone Applications in Water Quality Research?

Hi everyone! I am curious if anyone has come across water quality research using drones in wetted habitat, coastal ecosystems, rivers, lakes, or other riparian environments? I...

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Hi Ned,

Thank you so much for your response!

I absolutely agree- going out and testing flights over water at different angles and times of the day would be best. I'll look into a polarizing filter. I have spoken with some colleagues who recommend flying between noon and 3pm, and also that a cloudy day with diffused light can actually be quite helpful to avoid glint. I will look into the oil spill mapping - sounds very interesting. I've also heard that drones are sometimes restricted from oil spill regions due to risks of battery-caused fires (if the drones fall into the water). 

Ved! Fantastic idea. I used to work with him down at Ames, so I will certainly reach out. Thank you for the reminder!

Cheers,

Chippie

Hi CHippie - I am wondering how your thoughts are progressing on this topic? Please let us know an update.

Thanks

Michael

 

Hi Michael! 

Thanks so much for following up. I have yet to really get my feet wet with drones & algal blooms (my water quality issue of interest at the moment), but what I gathered from my literature review is that hyperspectral cameras are a much more precise option than multispectral cameras for algal identification. I'm hoping to try out a red-edge camera to see if there is anything spectrally interesting, as I do not currently have access to a hyperspectral camera. For the time being, I am hoping to play with a MicaSense camera over wet habitat and see if anything can be observed. I'll keep you posted if I find anything of interest! 

Thanks,

Chippie

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discussion

Tethered UAVs

Does anyone have an experince using a tethered drone or bimp? I want to collect aerial images of beluga whales that are being sampled (acoustics and snot) to determine numbers and...

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Thanks - I did look into blimps but the helium problem is a big one for remote work. I do have a couple UAVs but the area I work is tricky (airport, waterdrome, and helicopter landing with occasional ships that carry helicopters). my hope was for a tethered solution that could run for longer than the 20min battery life of a drone. thanks for the info.

 

thanks I adnt thought of kites  - I will have to test one in the field this year. I imagined one of the advantages of a tethered UAV is that I can parasitize all the camera elements (gimble stabilization, pan/tilt/zoom, and real time viewing of the imagery). Maybe I could just secure a cheap UAV under a kite... I wonder how I choose the correct kite size.

hi Stephen, 

 

Kites have gimbals too (ranging from simple strings to metal rigs) and you can connect to a camera much like a drone. In my case I have a gimbal hanging on a string, and to connect to my camera I get live connection and can change settings with the GoPro app! this website has lots of info - size of the kite depends on payload (some people fly SLRs!) and wind.  

Www.kapshop.com

 

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article

Eddy Expedition Log: Chasing Eddies

Elisha Wood-Charlson
This month, we're following along with the scientists and engineers from the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) who working together to...

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article

Eddy Expedition Log: Setting Off to Explore Eddies

Elisha Wood-Charlson
If you have ever flown over the Pacific and looked down from the window seat, the water seems still. Viewed from this distance, the water appears stagnant with unmoving dashes of waves. This picture strikes discordantly...

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article

#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge 2018: Our Top 10

WILDLABS Team
Hundreds of people joined our #Tech4Wildlife photo challenge this year, showcasing all the incredible ways tech is being used to support wildlife conservation. We've seen proximity loggers on Tasmanian Devils in...

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event

Technology Empowered Conservation Lecture Series

Paul Jepson
New technological forces look set to transform biodiversity science. This series will showcase and discuss cutting-edge applications happening in Oxford and beyond. It is guaranteed to inspire and challenge. 

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discussion

"harvesting" camera traps, bioacoustic sensors via drones

greetings - I'm looking for someone to team up with to build the equivalent of the http://wadi.io remote data "harvesting" capability, whereby in-situ sensors can...

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NASA/NOAA did something like this with microbuoys for ocean temp sensing in the arctic - drone deploys (drops) micrbuoys and repeatedly returns to fly over fetching data over the following days and weeks

http://www.arcticobservingsummit.org/sites/arcticobservingsummit.org/files/Bradley_Microbuoys_AOS.pdf

Do you have a specific use case /location in mind?


If we could find research funding I'd be interested, I can fly &build UAS but this is also an interesting data management opportunity which I'm very interested in.

Perhaps you could mod the Ardupilot tracking antenna system if really needed but if you're flying in the vicinity with line of sight I bet you don't even need to aim the antenna 

I've seen a couple of papers on similar capabilities, both with airborne drones as well as underwater drones, so there've been folks working on it. @emjay has a good point that the sensor nodes need to support this, which could be a bit tricky depending on your tolerance for battery life. What types of sensors are you thinking about supporting?

Hi Chris,

Your project sounds interesting! How's it coming along? 

I'm based in the SF Bay Area. I don't have much drone experience, but it's something that I've been looking into recently. I'm currently working on a face recgnition system for brown bears with a bear researcher in BC, Canada. The goal is to identify bears on the data from camera traps to monitor populations and such. Currently the data is only collected a few times a season.

I agree with @emjay that the ground assets may be an issue. Do you have any thoughts on that front?

In any case, if you have some time in the coming weeks, I'd be happy to get together in the coming weeks to talk it over.

Ed

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article

Kids, Drones & Science At The Water’s Edge

Cara Byington
It’s one thing to hear that a project is working, it’s another thing entirely to see the data brought to life. Using submersible and aerial drones, as well as scientists with snorkels and digital cameras, The Nature...

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discussion

Drone Tracker

Hi all, I'm looking for a stand alone tracker for drone as part of risk mitigation for a missing drone (due to flyaway or crash). The idea is this tracker will help...

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Hi Lot,

Thank you for your input. Currently we are the end user instead of developer. That means, we are still using commercial drone like DJI series. However the link that you give absolutely useful for our upcoming innovation plans.

Since we still using commercial type quadcopter, I'm looking for stand alone tracker that work as seperate system from the drone. In other words, this tracker will not be affected should the drone system crash.

So far me and my team come across this device

http://www.dronesmadeeasy.com/Marco-Polo-Drone-Tracker-RF-Recovery-p/marco_polo_1.htm

Unfortunately, the radio signal frequency range so far not approved by Malaysian authority. So, I'm looking for other option.

Anyone in this forum have other option/ opinion?

Regards,

Mazidi

  

 

Hi Mazidi,

 

A couple of options;

- Marco Polo.    http://eurekaproducts.com/rc-model-tracking-and-recovery/    

I know of people who have relocated their machine using this device.   

- Conventional VHF for wildlife tracking.  old but solid technology.

Also have a look at commercial / open source devices used for model rockets.

regards

MJ

 

EDIT: I see that you have already identified Marco Polo.

Hi Mazidi, all the systems that I recommended are separate systems with their own GPS, not connected to the drone.

Just the last one was the only finished product.

Good luck. Please tell us if you found something good and cheap!

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discussion

[ARCHIVE] OpenAerialMap

There is a new platform, developed by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) called OpenAerialMap. They have developed the platform for humanitarian mapping, but are throwing...

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discussion

Best Practice for Using Drones for Conservation: Let's create a living guidelines document

Hi everyone,  There have been a couple of threads of conversation arising concurrently in the community that suggest there is a knowledge gap that we could collectively...

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There's also GitLab. Again, it's probably not perfect as it's designed for coding, but I'm currently using it with a conference organising committee.

I personally think a wiki would be best. 

People in this thread might be interested in this special issue of remote sensing in ecology and conservation, looking for papers on "New Approaches to Citizen Science". Submissions close 15th July 

http://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2056-3485/journal-menu/call-for-papers.html

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discussion

OpenDroneMap

I'm interested in using OpenDroneMap. Does anyone out there have experience of using ODM, and do you any feedback? How do you find it? How does it compare to Pix4D,...

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Hi Thomas,

I tested it with some success, Pix4D offers more quality but ODM is doing the job quite well.

Since the process is quite demanding I will recomend you to execute ODM nativelly without virtual machine.

Maybe you can go directly for webODM:

https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/WebODM

Thanks @Lot ; I did try looking at WebODM but I even found this to be quite a convoluted process to get running. I've just volunteered as a tester for a new Windows one-click install for WebODM, so I'll take a look this week and feed back on this thread.

Cool! Thanks @Tomas Starnes.

Meanwhile, http://precisionmapper.com/ has adopted the freemium model, so the first 60 maps by year are free,  It's not open source but its free. I tried and works well, the 2d maps are perfect, the 3D digital model of terrain it's not the best but it's ok.

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discussion

Ground Control Points

I'm interested in finding out about the use of Ground Control Points (GCPs) for acquring drone imagery for mapping. My understanding is that you would only use them if...

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Hey @ahughes_rspb , thanks for starting this thread! It would be really useful to share experience on GCPs in particular. We're about to start experimenting by processing images with and without GCPs, but I expect that others are ahead of us with this. I'm particularly interested in point 4 - how much to GCPs affect the vertical accuracy of DSMs? Any advice?

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discussion

UAV for surveying river dolphins in the Amazon

Monitoring river dolphins in the Amazon is expensive and time consuming. Because of that there is a scarce understanding about their abundance and distribution. Our study aimed at...

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Hi Marcelo,

To improve autonomy, you'll either need less weight on your drone, better batteries, or what about a fixed wing aircraft? Look at the parrot disco - it's much cheaper than the eBee, and you can outfit it with a downward facing camera instead of the forward, though it seems from your video, the one it has is fine). Those things can fly much longer than copters.

 

best,

aurélie

 

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