This is a 15-minute short film about Zuzana’s journey across parts of Madagascar with a drone, shining a spotlight on environmental and livelihood issues on the red island.
It is a fascinating and personal behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of conducting drone missions in the tropics. Zuzana had never operated a drone nor even flown a remote controlled plane before.
Zuzana is an ecologist based at a Swiss university, and a PhD student of Lian Pin Koh, who is co-founder of ConservationDrones.org. This Youtube film is also Zuzana’s first attempt at video production and editing.
Comments
That will make shipping much easier : )
Talk to you later.
Hi Joshua,
Did I say you are fantastic? I will be moving to Princeton, NJ next week for a year-long sabbatical at the university. I am not bringing any of my RC parts and tools, and am planning to start a new drone building garage from scratch. So your contributions will surely come in handy! I will private message you my address.
-LP
I'm just making some guesses about your mission profiles and the equipment that would be useful. I assume that everything is potentially disposable when flying over the jungle, so older tech is not a bad thing.
APM-1 units
XBee radios (900 mHz, not sure what your frequency needs are)
Ardustations
GPS Rxs
motors, ESCs
10Ah LiFePo4 cells, these make a great battery for your ground station, four will get you 12v nominal. Is this a useful voltage? I can throw in more cells if you need a higher voltage. I'll look into the shipping considerations as well.
If you need live video out to a Tx for monitoring on the ground, this ultra low-profile AV plug will let you keep the integrity of the waterproof GoPro housing, looks like that would always be useful in your operating theater.
All these parts are going to just continue gathering dusts in my possession, I'm about to jump into PX4 and GoPro-3 so my current gear can become back up for me.
Another interesting item, that I could pass on, is a small parafoil kite. It could be used as a landing method for a fixed wing craft, or even better, turned into a para-motor uav. You will always need to have an excellent tree climber in your crew regardless of the airframe : )
great video and great work!
must research possibility to spend a vacation helping as a volunteer..
Hi Joshua, for sure we will appreciate any donations and help!
Do you need any parts? I have components that I would happily contribute to projects like this.