Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Artificial Intelligence Revolutionizing Wildlife Monitoring and Conservation.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Artificial Intelligence Revolutionizing Wildlife Monitoring and Conservation.
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DOI：
10.3390/s16010097
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发表时间：
2016-01-14
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Gaston KJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Gonzalez LF;Montes GA;Puig E;Johnson S;Mengersen K;Gaston KJ
调查濒危和入侵物种以获得准确的种群估计是一项重要但具有挑战性的任务，需要大量的时间和资源投入。众所周知，利用现有地面监测技术（如相机陷阱和徒步调查）进行的估算需要大量资源，可能不准确和不精确，而且难以验证。无人机（UAV）、人工智能和小型化热成像系统的最新发展为野生动物专家提供了一个新的机会，使他们能够以低成本调查相对较大的区域。本文提出的系统包括热图像采集和视频处理管道，用于对森林或开阔地区的野生动物进行目标检测、分类和跟踪。该系统在来自地面和试飞镜头的热视频数据上进行了测试，发现能够探测到位于调查区域的所有目标野生动物。该系统是灵活的，因为用户可以很容易地定义要分类的对象类型和在分类过程中应该考虑的对象特征。
Surveying threatened and invasive species to obtain accurate population estimates is an important but challenging task that requires a considerable investment in time and resources. Estimates using existing ground-based monitoring techniques, such as camera traps and surveys performed on foot, are known to be resource intensive, potentially inaccurate and imprecise, and difficult to validate. Recent developments in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), artificial intelligence and miniaturized thermal imaging systems represent a new opportunity for wildlife experts to inexpensively survey relatively large areas. The system presented in this paper includes thermal image acquisition as well as a video processing pipeline to perform object detection, classification and tracking of wildlife in forest or open areas. The system is tested on thermal video data from ground based and test flight footage, and is found to be able to detect all the target wildlife located in the surveyed area. The system is flexible in that the user can readily define the types of objects to classify and the object characteristics that should be considered during classification.