Airware Demonstrates Antipoaching UAS in Africa

By Danielle Lucey



California company Airware recently announced that in late December, a team of its engineers conducted tests of a commercial unmanned aircraft system that could prove to be a viable tool in protecting African rhinos from poachers. 



The two-week test flights of the Aerial Ranger occurred on Ol Pejeta Conservancy in northern Kenya. Kenya had 50 rhino deaths due to poaching in 2013. The system is outfitted with an Airware autopilot platform and control software. It can send real-time digital video and thermal imaging feeds in both day and night conditions.  



The software has a mapping interface that allows a person with no pilot training to operate the platform, according to a press release by the conservancy. 



“The commercial drone space is a major growth market with applications like precision agriculture, infrastructure inspection, and search and rescue,” says Airware CEO Jonathan Downey. “In addition to our work developing the next-generation autopilot platform, we’re working on a project that our team cares a lot about — building a drone for conservation.”



Representatives from Ol Pejeta say it can also use the Aerial Ranger for its annual wildlife census work, which it normally performs with a light aircraft, flying for 13 hours at a time at $220 an hour and is subject to human error. 



“The Aerial Ranger could do all this in a day, at minimal cost, recording footage that can be watched several times over and carefully analyzed,” according to Ol Pejeta’s press release. “Censuses could be conducted monthly, providing experts with valuable and more reliable data about the Laikipia ecosystem.”



Downey and his team feel positive about the first test run. 



“It surpassed all of our expectations,” says Downey. “We still have more development to do but we’re extremely encouraged and quite proud to be pioneering drones that can preserve some of our planet’s most threatened species.”