Hello to all. This is my first post and I am hoping to raise some awareness of how UAV's can help in the fight against poaching. There is an organisation called the International Anti Poaching Foundation (IAPF) which is dedicated to stopping the slaughter of endangered species in Africa. Some of the videos on the website made me sick, to think poachers kill these magnificent animals just for their tusks and horns that are used in useless Chinese remedies is nothing short of a disgrace and travesty on the human race.
These guys are just starting to use drones to track poachers and they need our help. They currently have 2 in the air and are in the process of preparing another 5. This is their own UAV program and is fully funded by donations. If you are truly interested in taking your drone skills to the ultimate level then please do what you can to help. Make no mistake about it, this is a war they are fighting. Hunting and capturing poachers and protecting wildlife is a full time job. The organisation is run by an ex SAS (Special Forces) soldier from the Australian Army. Some of the accounts from engagements with poachers are terrifying and usually end in shoot outs no different to a warfare situation. Rangers have been killed trying to protect these animals. The 2 drones they do have have saved their lives many times.
As an ex Royal Australian Air Force missile engineer I am just starting to help them out and I will do whatever I can. But as a newbie to the drone community I am here to get information and toss some ideas around, raise awareness and also see what equipment people are willing to donate or to help out in whatever way they can. There are 39000 members of this community, if 1 in 1000 can help out even in the smallest way you can contribute, the difference you will make will be greatly appreciated.
Flying a drone around the neighbourhood is fun but to lend our skills to this, to me is the ultimate use of this technology and my years of training in guided missile electronics and control systems. Please contribute anyway you can.
So its over to you guys and lets see what we can do.
Comments please
Best Regards
Michael
Comments
I have a project which I'm working on. I noticed that there was a FLIR sticker on your drone. Is it quipped with a Thermal Camera? Is FLIR interested in making the cameras available if the UAVs are able to make full use of its functions?
Please see Project Arrow
http://mrt247.wix.com/project-arrow
Zedtwitz, we started using Flir TAU 640 cores however we are currently investigating the Quark series of similar resolution.
here is a very relevant link . www.conservationdrones.org
the socio-economic issues of poaching are out os scope this blog. this blog covers affordable drone technology and contribution.
Hello all,
First off can I thank Michael for raising awareness of our efforts. I am the technical development manager for the www.iapf.org UAV program. There are a number of us spread across the world who form the whole team, however for the most part actual UAV development happens here in Melbourne, Australia. That's me in the picture with the X8 Michael has posted along with this post.
Our team is made up of volunteers from a variety of ex military and other aviation / UAV arenas. The team collectively has experience in the regulatory, procurement, research and development operation and testing of a variety of UAV platforms from around the world.
As you all know all too well, individual UAV requirements differ as per your objective. Our objective currently is not using APM's, (sorry Chris) although we did start off with them. So whilst Michaels intention is good and well meaning, we are already on a path toward a suitable platform with the required avionics and optics. That path is one as stated by Gary Mortimer that does not come cheap, hence why we are not using APM's anymore. Michael I have to also confess Gary is correct in his statement about poverty and lack of education being at the root of the poaching issue. However you are also correct if there wasn't a demand, there wouldn't be the black market trade in the first instance. So what does this all mean? Well the IAPF has embarked on tackling the issues on both fronts. The team in Australia are busy building capable, bush hardy, CAA compliant sUAS's whilst the main arm of the IAPF continues to work with local communities in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique building networks and communities to help "empower" locals. "empower" is a phrase used a lot in Africa - just research why Namibia has had almost no poaching incidences over the past decade or so and you will start to grasp the complexities of the situation.
That all said, there are some fantastic comments here and a wealth of knowledge and experience out there to call upon. At the same time, too many cooks can spoil the broth and take up valuable time answering the dozens of emails that tend to flood us daily so I will ask you kindly If you have serious intentions of helping and not hindering the process then by all means get in touch. If you PM on this forum we can take the conversation further.
Oliver thank you for your comments and your donation, best thing we could ask for really. Many of you who have left email addresses, please PM me with your relevant experience and areas you feel you could most contribute toward.
I have been doing some research and some design work for a large gas powered UAV that can be made localy. It would be open source and designed with the communities input and help. What kind of mussion profile do you think would be appropriate for the work you have in mind?
Hello and WOW. Thanks for all the replies, some very good points by all. Thanks for donating Oliver very much appreciated, I hope some others can follow suit whether for the rhino's or any other endangered animals.
Rodrigo, I will PM you.
Nathan there are a few things I would like to run by you as a fellow gunnie so I will PM you as well.
Bertold I'm not sure if they use radios or not but I am getting a sort of tactical report from the guys over there to see what they are up against and will go from there. I spent many years working on Harpoon, Sparrow and Sidewinder and torpedoes, I'm not too concerned about a jammer from ebay or anything else they have for that matter. Jamming a signal is 100 times harder than building a receiver to get around it, I know this from my Harpoon and Sparrow experience. I think I have them covered. Unless they have an ALQ-99 TJS, but I don't think they do. I really, really, really, hope they do use radios, that would be so helpful. I have another friend whose into SDR. These make great RDF especially in an aerial platform.
Helistorm, the use of a UAV in SAR is probably no different than what's going on here, what we learn from one can be applied to the other and help each other out. Glad your on board to help.
Naish, the X8 looks fantastic, I think I might get one for myself to have a play with.
Ravi I will PM you, I have some questions for you.
Gary I have to respectfully disagree with you on some points. Poverty is not the cause of this, the end user is.The only part of the rhino they want is the horn, the rest of the animal just rots. Rhino horn is used in Chinese medicine because they think it cures cancer and is like viagara, idiots. Studies have shown that only a particular age group above 55 believe this, young Chinese just don't believe in it. The only reason the rhinos are hunted is to supply this market and when all these old Chinese guys die, hopefully the market will disappear. Rhino horn doesn't end up anywhere else but China, no market no more shooting. We have to protect the rhinos until then. The lion and tiger skins are a different story I think. They end up in any country for whatever sick twisted person thinks that to have a big cat skin on their floor to walk on is nice. Stopping this market is way harder than stopping the rhino horn because your next door neighbour may have a skin in his closet and you would never know it but he probably doesn't take rhino horn to satisfy his misses or fix his brain tumour. Maybe what we need here is a common platform, NATO style. There are so many people and organisations involved in using UAV's for this sort of thing I think a working group to design a common platform that everyone can use would reduce costs in R&D and supply. We all want the same thing in the end.
Bertram, I was thinking GPS structured over Inertial Navigation System (INS), I have done this before on another project. Its not that hard to do these days, god I love microprocessors. And a narrow band microwave burst transmission will get through even a reasonably high powered jammer. We only need a pic every 5-10 seconds.
Azhar I will PM you.
Hi there.. I believe I have enough knowledge and skill to help out. Currently I am not really attaching my self to any company (nor wife) and your cause seems to be interesting enough for me. I could be a full-time pilot or UAV mechanic if you should you need me. Or maybe just a consultancy?
I can be contacted at: azharpangesti @gmail if you need any consultation
Wildlife management is how I started with UA. They have there uses that's for sure. Perhaps improving the lives of communities bordering reserves and education at the end user point might serve Rhinos better. The its a war metaphor just does not hold true. Its a poverty and school problem.
There is a great deal of evidence to support the fact that most poaching money is being used to underwrite wars that the West has no interest in stopping. So stepping in to do that would help.
If you think Rhinos are having it bad, start looking up lions and elephants.
Its a shame for a Rhino that the commodity they have can be carried by one man.
I'm getting into full rant mode and that never helps. There are large military platforms doing the work and successfully in countries that have them. One sUAS causing a wildfire after a LiPo incident could cause a great deal of damage. A recent high profile BS exercise here claimed to have zero instances of poaching whilst in operation. The reality was it was the worst month in that particular provinces history.
One of your tiger researchers is currently here on a cat project that I am lucky enough to be flying for Ravi.
Of course I am not against UA for wildlife management its why I am here.
everything is easy to be saboteaged like jamming GPS. that does not means we should give up. the technology of DIYdrones would also keep evolving. i am very positive. may be we would have inertial navigation one day. even if we loose 100 drones and are able to save one rhino it is worth every penny. in my country the threat is to tigers. we have to protect them. UAV's are quite effective even when flown in FPV mode without GPS navigation. FPV UAV's are very cost effective and can gather wonderful information. DIYdrones community must give it's contiribution for protection of wildlife otherswise all what we are doing is worthless.
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