Using low cost open source UAVs for marine wild life monitoring - Field Report*

In this paper we report results on the use of low cost, open source Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) for detecting and tracking hammerhead sharks using a digital camera payload. With the prevailing increase in affordability of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) these have gained a widespread appeal and use in civilian, military and academic research scenarios. Moreover these systems have become easier to setup and deploy allowing their use in projects or activities with more limited means of funding. Still, the challenge of successfully meeting the end-user's demands with an easy-to-use, low cost operational package while avoiding over-fitting issues remains. This paper explores the applicability and successfulness of an existing low cost UAS solution in tackling maritime based environmental studies, while testing its scalability potential. Furthermore while relying upon an established tool-chain, different payload configurations were fitted into the UAV. After a series of real flight tests the end-user's required data was recovered distilled and analysed. End-user feedback demonstrated an overwhelming satisfaction with UAS's capacity to meet the required goals while retaining its modularity and affordability intact.