May 9, 20172 min read

Autonomous Aircraft for Conservation and Counter Poaching of Endangered Species

The US Patent & Trademark Office invited Kashmir World Foundation to present on project Mishell Drones an Autonomous Aircraft for Conservation and Counter Poaching of Endangered Species for their Tech Fair on Tuesday, May 9. The presentation was included Kashmir World Foundation team who presented on a various divisions of the project.

Surveillance of marine turtle nesting and hatching is most often done by people walking the beach at dawn or sunset, observing sea turtle tracks in the sand, and following them to nests created during the night. Effectiveness of this method depends on the number of beach walkers, level of expertise, and distance needed to be covered on a daily basis. For some nesting beaches this may be adequate, but for beaches subjected to heavy predation, recreational activity, remoteness, or poaching, significant benefits may be achieved through more timely and safe surveillance. For most nesting beaches, beach walking surveillance will prove difficult to achieve or sustain.

KwF has been working to design, fabricate, integrate, and operate “MiSHELL” - a fully autonomous custom drone with the ability to collect and process data onboard. MiSHELLDrones will be “trained” to perform the functions of human beach walkers, identifying and locating turtle tracks, following the tracks to locate nests, observing nests, and reporting on their location and condition. Additional pattern recognition and reporting capabilities will be added as required by the marine turtle research and protection community. The results of this project are expected to determine how effective and efficient drones could be in marine turtle monitoring programs.

Princess Aliyah presented on the project mission and drone development