Using Best drone and Software to count wild animals

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
5 replies · 2K views
Arman777
Insights Author
Gold Member
Messages
2,163
Reaction score
191
I have a project and in that project I'll count the wild life animals from a drone.

I need to find a drone that doesn't make much sound also (maximum 60-70 dB), it must capable of a flight time 30 min and also can carry a IR camera.
I find a drone callled Phantom 4 (Advanced or Pro), I am not sure this is the best option for this project.But I searched some drones and this seems the best.There'll approximately 2.000 animal so I am not sure what should I count all of them.
I ll use the IR cmaera in the white hot mode so, my idea is using a software program that can count these aniamls in this mode.

I find a better one Inspire but I am not sure that it have a autonom mode (making waypointes and flying through them)
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
Do you want a helicopter drone or an airplane style drone? It seems the helicopter ones make a fair amount of noise enough to scare an animal unless it is flying high enough.

Here's a pricey one that can fly for 85 minutes with 2 mile tether:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/co...HsXvesWBEaAi4HEALw_wcB&is=REG&m=Y&sku=1330626

There's probably something a lot cheaper with reduced flight times like this one:

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HKJJ2ZM/A/parrot-disco-fpv-drone?afid=p238%7CswVEc7FwB-dc_mtid_1870765e38482_pcrid_175093792935_&cid=aos-us-kwgo-pla---slid--product-HKJJ2ZM/A

and I think the db levels will be low enough.
 
Are you counting elephants or squirrels? Are there trees? Do the animals naturally have camouflaged coats? Will you be writing the image processing software to do the counting?

Sounds like a fun project. What are the drone flight rules in the area where you will be doing the counting?
 
Well, I am not sure about the drone flight rules, I ll count the groose, there's not much trees the terrain is open , but in IR camera it will be no problem I guess I am not sure though.
 
Arman777 said:
Well, I am not sure about the drone flight rules, I ll count the groose, there's not much trees the terrain is open , but in IR camera it will be no problem I guess I am not sure though.
Well, in the US, drones are regulated by the FAA: https://www.faa.gov/uas/

And AFAIK, drones are not allowed in most Federal, State and Local parks. Flying your drone over a private ranch at low altitude with written permission of the ranch owner may not be a problem, but check the FAA rules for allowed altitudes and other restrictions.
 
I am in Turkey so Ia m not sure about the rules,But We may use militaty drones, since there's some projestcs like that in the USA using Raven Drone, I am not sure heli drones are possible to calculate suvh things the coast of the area is 110 km and there's most likely 10000 groose
berkeman said:
Well, in the US, drones are regulated by the FAA: https://www.faa.gov/uas/

And AFAIK, drones are not allowed in most Federal, State and Local parks. Flying your drone over a private ranch at low altitude with written permission of the ranch owner may not be a problem, but check the FAA rules for allowed altitudes and other restrictions.