The project for drone-based ecology and wildlife conservation aims to revolutionize wildlife conservation practices around three themes:
With the available in-house expertise Avy will focus on safe and flexible drone operations and focus on technologies for adaptive and flexible use of drones to observe animals in complex environments, as well as technologies for safe and unobtrusive use of drones to observe animals undetected. With the aim to disturb the animals as little as possible. For most species, the disturbance is caused by the sound produced by the drones. The goal is to innovate the design of the propellers and power systems to minimize interference with animal behaviors.
Wildlife preservation is a very interesting use-case for the drone industry. Especially for a Drones for Good company like Avy. We are driven to make a positive sustainable impact through use-cases like this. From a technical perspective, we want to ensure that the noise disturbance is at an absolute minimum and doesn't cause any harm to the animals. Through the WildDrone project, several PhDs will research the suitability of drones for wildlife preservation. The PhD that will be positioned at Avy will specifically look into the noise profile of our drones.Matthijs Damen, Head of Tech at Avy
The WildDrone consortium is an international network under the EU Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions programme. The network will operate from January 1st 2023 till December 31st 2026. The WildDrone consortium is made up of 20 partners based in Europe, Africa, and the United States.
Amongst them are different leading European and African universities, research institutions, wildlife reserves, high-technology companies, an environmental agency, a world-leading news outlet, an international wildlife foundation, and one industry organization.