Yesterday, I listened on the radio, an interview with a student, at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, who has created, with 3 other colleagues, a drone to help control poaching of rhinos and elephants, in Africa. This student is called Aleix Figueres.
A drone, designed and created by a team of four students, from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) (North eastern Spain), will allow, to the national parks, like Kruger (South Africa), monitor, more effectively and economically, poaching of rhinos and elephants.
The creators of the Ranger Drone to save lives of elephants and rhinos
The students have created the unmanned vehicle (UAV), dubbed as 'Ranger Drone', with the premise that it has a low cost, to use it in the natural parks of different African countries.
The device is programmed to monitor areas of forest or savannah, from the burden of coordinates to the system and it flies with complete autonomy, without any remote control.
"This will greatly facilitate the task of monitoring the guards, so they can find faster herds of elephants or rhinos, considering that through the system, they will receive the exact coordinates of where they are", says Arnau García, one of the creators and student, at the High Technical School of Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering of Terrassa (ETSEIAT). Thus, "the protection of animals will be much more effective", he adds.
Now, I should like to show you an interesting video, where the project of this drone is explained very well, in English, through some drawings. If you want to watch this video, please click on the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAbsBpecjH8
The drone, developed by these students, as a project at the end of the degree, is made of fixed wing and it incorporates technology, to detect this type of animals, from the air and send online, in real time, information of their location.
The project, which has the support of a start up -HEMAV-, installed in the incubator ESA BIC Barcelona, from the European Space Agency (ESA) and created by former students of the UPC, incorporates a thermal camera, that helps detect poachers, from the air. Students are working to also incorporate a system of sounds detection.
Now, I should like to show you another interesting video, where the project is explained with images of video, from the air. So, you can imagine over where the poachers go.
https://vimeo.com/118475370
Information, obtained by the drone, will be sent, instantly, by telemetry, by UHF (Ultra High Frequency) or GSM technology ( of mobile), to the basis of the park rangers, who always will can know where the animals are and what is the area, that is being monitored.
The prototype has been chosen among 120 teams, by the organization “Wildlife Conservation UAV Challenge”, based in South Africa, to participate in an international competition, organized with the aim of finding an effective solution, to the indiscriminate and illegal hunting of elephants and rhinos. In the month of March 2015, they will present the project, in South Africa, and they will make the final tests, with the six remaining teams.
Well, I am glad, because a group of Spanish students are able to create a device, to help other countries, where some animals are endangered. Congratulations!!!!.
Until my next post, kind regards,
Luis.
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