My name is Nikita Shakhraichuk, doing research under Intelligent Robotics and Emergent Automation Lab at Georgia Tech. My lab specializes in drone design and aircraft autonomy.
My advisor - Jonathan Rogers - and I are starting a new project focused on building a wildlife surveillance drone aircraft designed for gathering data about migratory birds. We envision that the system would be used in concert with satellite tracking systems such as ICARUS to provide a more close-up monitoring capability that can capture video, animal behaviors, and other relevant contextual environmental information. It is possible that the aircraft may be guided by data from ICARUS, but would provide complementary sensing capabilities at higher resolutions (e.g., videos of bird behaviors in flight and at stopover points). Right now, we are thinking that the aircraft will need to be very small and lightweight (to limit any collision risk), rechargeable via solar power, and very robust to collisions with trees, terrain, etc.
However, both my advisor and I come from pure engineering backgrounds. Therefore, we'd be very interested in community's opinion on this idea, and any guidance or advice you might have. In particular, we are hoping to understand
1) whether you think this idea has merit
2) what kinds of measurements or data would be valuable to gather via this drone.
We are also open to a more sustained collaboration in the future if that is of interest.
Looking forward to hearing your input, and thank you in advance for your time and feedback!
8 February 2025 4:42pm
One of the major considerations for bird study is that it doesn't disturb nesting birds. If too low in altitude, birds may perceive the drone as a threat and leave the nest. This allows opportunistic species to come in and take the eggs or chicks. This is why a good optic zoom and large photo sensor are key to high res images. If there was a quieter, smaller drone, it might not be perceived as a threat.
Also, a lower altitude for disturbance might make oblique image capture easier.
18 February 2025 10:42pm
Hi! I would be interested to learn more about your project. Would you send me your contact email? Mine is melisa.simic@nuveen.com - We are infrastructure investors globally working with both clean energy and diversified infra assets.
Thanks, Melisa
21 March 2025 3:25pm
Hi Nikita,
If you haven't already, I'd recommend reaching out to the folks at the Cornell Ornithology lab. They're really glued into all things bird. In particular, I remember seeing a presentation years ago about their project birdcasting, which was measuring bird migration via radar. One of their next steps was to connect small scale behavior to large scale movement data, and it sounds like your drone project could help fill that gap.
Cheers,
Brandon
Richard Gibbons