The second largest land mammal on earth, the majestic white rhino is under siege by poachers looking to make big money selling its highly coveted tusks, which in many parts of Asia are thought to contain almost magical medicinal properties. UAV-America, a New Hampshire-based designer and builder of UAV's is helping a South African game preserve protect the white rhino using a multirotor UAV equipped with infrared thermal imaging and daylight cameras that patrol quietly, safely and inconspicuously from above, transmitting streaming video to the ground.
As CEO of LabWare, a global technology company that develops software for automating laboratory operations, Vance Kershner spent a lot of time in South Africa,
where he quickly fell in love with its bush country and wildlife. In
TKTKT, he started the Madikwe Conservancy, which today holds more than
six thousand animals, including antelope, giraffes, impala, zebra,
warthogs and white rhinos.
Unfortunately,
the Conservancy's armed guards face a number of challenges keeping
poachers away. First, it can be difficult to detect where white rhinos
are at any one time. "You can patrol for miles and encounter nothing,"
says Kershner. Detecting poachers can be difficult if they're hiding in
the bush, particularly at night. If the guards detect suspicious
activity, conveying an exact location to authorities in the middle of
bush country can be a challenge.
Being
naturally technology savvy, Kershner came up with the idea for UAV
patrols. He hooked up with his friend Jim Faunce, an engineer who has
provided technical assistance to the military for Command, Control,
Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and
Reconnaissance (C4ISR). Faunce found a multirotor product that had the
heft and battery life to last 45 minutes in the air carrying a thermal
imaging camera, daylight camera, antennae, a controller and transmitter.
Faunce also found UAV-America to help design and acquire the entire solution and integrate all the pieces so they would work together smoothly. "Owner Jim Cooper and his partner Matt Koestner
picked up on what we were looking for right away and had very
intelligent answers and suggestions," says Faunce. "They were always
very responsive."
UAV-America
provided the basic UAV platform and the design support to choose and
integrate the right flight controller, gimbal mount, transmitter,
cameras, thermal imaging and other components with the UAV.
UAV-America
found a robust controller solution allowing a range of up to 110
Kilometers (Thomas Scherrer Long Range Systems), allowing the pilot to
patrol remotely from a long distance. It also can be programmed with a
flight plan in advance for fully autonomous missions.
"We're
not committed to any one vendor or manufacturer," says Cooper. "For the
rhino project, we spent quite some time researching, assembling and
testing control and video streaming equipment to be sure they would meet
mission requirements."
Thanks
to the innovative package, the preserve will soon have an efficient,
low-cost solution for aiding patrols in locating white rhino on the
preserve. Thermal imaging can identify poachers even if they're hiding
in the bush at night. A built-in GPS allows pilots to communicate exact
coordinates if suspicious activity is detected. Kershner also
anticipates using the UAS solution for the preserve's annual aerial
surveys and game counts, which until now required renting a helicopter
for upwards of $10,000 per day.
Testing has begun in New Hampshire and will move to New Jersey for some limited flying and then a field test in South Africa during the first week in August.
"It's
amazing what a UAV can do for a relatively low price," says Faunce.
"You can set up a flight path, take your hands off and watch in real
time, the video transmission and the UAV's location on a Google Earth
Map. If you see something you can have it descend and hover over the
area and then take off again. Everything works together like a charm."
Cooper
and Koestner have both found the experience with the Conservancy to be
its own adventure. "Taking on projects that haven't been done before and
have no clear-cut solution is what I find the most rewarding," says
Koestner.
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