Wildlife tracking
Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand : Operation Pateke
A bit of history ; Above is a video of the first airborne radio detection system on a UAS in New Zealand. Designed by X-craft, this system was specifically built to operate in high risk, difficult terrain conditions for the task of tracking wildlife with transponders. To our knowledge this system, at the time of first launch, was unique in the world. The pilot had the ability to track across multiple frequencies, identifying multiple individual targets during a single flight and remotely controlling a range of parameters on the airborne system in real-time. Any tagged wildlife could be tracked, from birds, animals to surface dwelling marine life. This system won a World Wildlife Innovation Award.
Evolution of the system: Once we had explored the limitations of the initial system we designed a completely new system to superseded it. This was a completely new way of tracking and data collection developed by X-craft called The Seekatron. This new system was a fundamental rethink of data collection of wildlife, not only achieving positional information but also a wide range of other sensor information. The whole system can be customised to the users requirements allowing them to not only refine the data capture to their own specific data targets but also allows them to make changes during a project, remotely via an airborne communication system, without the need to recall the sensor device from the field. This allows for not only a projects task specific data capture but also allows for changes in those data priorities as the project evolves. The range of data collected, the speed of operation and the flexibility of the system far outweigh the original VHF tracking system and offers to revolutionise our knowledge of wildlife.
Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand : Operation Pateke
A bit of history ; Above is a video of the first airborne radio detection system on a UAS in New Zealand. Designed by X-craft, this system was specifically built to operate in high risk, difficult terrain conditions for the task of tracking wildlife with transponders. To our knowledge this system, at the time of first launch, was unique in the world. The pilot had the ability to track across multiple frequencies, identifying multiple individual targets during a single flight and remotely controlling a range of parameters on the airborne system in real-time. Any tagged wildlife could be tracked, from birds, animals to surface dwelling marine life. This system won a World Wildlife Innovation Award.
Evolution of the system: Once we had explored the limitations of the initial system we designed a completely new system to superseded it. This was a completely new way of tracking and data collection developed by X-craft called The Seekatron. This new system was a fundamental rethink of data collection of wildlife, not only achieving positional information but also a wide range of other sensor information. The whole system can be customised to the users requirements allowing them to not only refine the data capture to their own specific data targets but also allows them to make changes during a project, remotely via an airborne communication system, without the need to recall the sensor device from the field. This allows for not only a projects task specific data capture but also allows for changes in those data priorities as the project evolves. The range of data collected, the speed of operation and the flexibility of the system far outweigh the original VHF tracking system and offers to revolutionise our knowledge of wildlife.
Infra-red : Trials using Infra-red, optical and computer vision for the detection and tracking and identification of wildlife has had some interesting results. Below are some early trials of this where we carried out a search for rabbits. The aim is to see what characteristics identify them as distinct from other wildlife such as rats, cats, ferrets and birds.
Although IR has limitations due to object blockage, such as dense tree canopies or building structures, we have achieved substantial success with thermal ID of creatures and successfully detected rare bird species, which are famously difficult to see with the naked eye, using this methodology,. This can even be achieved during the day.
Although IR has limitations due to object blockage, such as dense tree canopies or building structures, we have achieved substantial success with thermal ID of creatures and successfully detected rare bird species, which are famously difficult to see with the naked eye, using this methodology,. This can even be achieved during the day.