Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and artificial intelligence revolutionizing wildlife monitoring and conservation

Luis F. Gonzalez, Glen A. Montes, Eduard Puig, Sandra A Johnson, Kerrie Mengersen, Kevin J. Gaston

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

361 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Surveying threatened and invasive species to obtain accurate population estimates is an important but challenging task that requires a considerable investment in time and resources. Estimates using existing ground-based monitoring techniques, such as camera traps and surveys performed on foot, are known to be resource intensive, potentially inaccurate and imprecise, and difficult to validate. Recent developments in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), artificial intelligence and miniaturized thermal imaging systems represent a new opportunity for wildlife experts to inexpensively survey relatively large areas. The system presented in this paper includes thermal image acquisition as well as a video processing pipeline to perform object detection, classification and tracking of wildlife in forest or open areas. The system is tested on thermal video data from ground based and test flight footage, and is found to be able to detect all the target wildlife located in the surveyed area. The system is flexible in that the user can readily define the types of objects to classify and the object characteristics that should be considered during classification.

Original languageEnglish
Article number97
JournalSensors
Volume16
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Jan 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Automatic classification
  • Conservation
  • Deer
  • Dingo
  • Koala
  • Robotics
  • Thermal imaging
  • Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
  • Wild pigs
  • Wildlife monitoring

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