Aplicación dron en soporte a la lucha contra la caza furtiva de rinocerontes en África

Abstract

Last decade the number of rhinoceroses living in freedom has been reduced by a 28%. The most important factor that is extinguishing the species is the increase of poaching, which pursues the rhinos in order to obtain their horn and later sell it on the black market. Nowadays, the largest population of rhinoceroses can be found in South Africa's protected parks, most of them have large tracts of land. This project is aimed at developing a low-cost drone tool capable of providing the rangers with useful terrain information. The objective was to create a drone application capable of identifying hot spots in the overflown area and get as much information as possible about them and the area around them. To achieve the objective, we have used technologies directly related to artificial vision and drone control through commands. Thanks to them we have created an application capable of modifying the flight plan of the drone completely autonomously. In this document you can find the detailed definition of the application developed, as well as the technical procedures we have followed. At the end you can find the theoretical and experimental validation of the application created.