AI in the Sky

Sea Turtles are found on beaches worldwide. Monitoring of marine turtle nesting and hatching is most often done by biologists and volunteers, who walk the beach at dawn in order to observe sea turtle tracks in the sand, and follow them to nests that were created during the night. Effectiveness of this method depends on the number of beach walkers, level of expertise, and degree of focus. 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 surveillance.

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), also referred to as drones, offer the potential for better timeliness, consistency, overall effectiveness, and more widespread application. Drones are able to perform surveillance of marine turtle nesting throughout day and night under most weather conditions. KwF has already demonstrated simple drone streaming video to ground operators.

Drones have…