Our planet is experiencing a rapid loss of biodiversity, and more species are threatened with extinction now than at any other point in human history. Habitat loss due to agricultural expansion, urbanization, land degradation, overexploitation, and climate change are among the primary factors accelerating populations decline and species extinction. There is an urgent need for more effective and feasible conservation practices to monitor wildlife populations, track their movements, and manage human-wildlife conflicts. Recent advances in technology have paved new avenues for more accurate and larger-scale interventions that can help combat the rapid decline of wildlife populations we witness globally.
WildDrone works to revolutionize wildlife conservation practices by integrating aerial robotics, computer vision, and wildlife ecology, using autonomous drone technology as a unifying platform. We will develop new autonomous systems, expand current software capabilities, and combine them to create practical tools for visual inspection and monitoring of wildlife populations, movement, behaviour, and habitats in complex field settings.
The specific objectives concern scientific Theme 1 Conservation Ecology (O1) Apply drones as a tool for predicting and preventing conflict between wildlife and humans, and (O2) Integrate drone systems with bio-logging technologies to link animal behaviour to physical and ecological contexts; Theme 2 Drone Operations (O3) Develop technologies for responsive, adaptive, and flexible use of drones to observe animals in complex environments, and (O4) Develop techniques for the safe and unobtrusive use of drones to observe animals undetected; Theme 3 Computer Vision (O5) Develop methodologies for vision-based drone control, enabling real time tracking, pose estimation and assessment of animal biometrics, and (O6) Develop principles and techniques for large-scale censuses of animal groups in their environmental context; and finally Training and Communication (O7) Form an interdisciplinary network of young researchers across European and African countries, and (O8) Raise awareness about the nature conservation impact of an interdisciplinary approach using drones, computer vision, and ecology.
