Drones....

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ratherbefishin

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Several years ago I contacted the fish and game department on moose populations and they kindly sent me a copy of some 'fly over' data in the peace river which they do every few years,but due to the cost,it is not done regularly.

I was having dinner with a chap here in Victoria who is marketing drones which are used in a number of applications( recently in a successful search and rescue ) His company is receiving extensive international interest ,and I brought up the potential for moose/deer counts ,which could be done for a fraction of the price of fixed wing aircraft.They can be programmed to fly a set grid pattern and the cameras send the data back to the base.Seems to me to be a perfect fit for game management...It just makes sense to have an accurate tally rather than guessing
 
Much easier for human eyes (peripheral) to spot game at 100ft+
Vs watching the pixelated "tunnel" view from a monitor

I think you wouldn't get as high/accurate counts vs a helicopter
 
eatredmeat157 said:
Much easier for human eyes (peripheral) to spot game at 100ft+
Vs watching the pixelated "tunnel" view from a monitor

I think you wouldn't get as high/accurate counts vs a helicopter
Click to expand...

Just thinking... who says the camera has to be visible spectrum, though? If it were, say, IR blooms, or a dual camera system, the operator could fast-forward, noting big red blobs, then go to the visible video, and check each indicated time to identify species. I would imagine it would even be do-able to have the IR video pass through an application that would do the scanning and detection for you - and produce a list of timestamps that had "something" on them. Pass that to a second app that would then take the visible camera video, and automatically crop each timestamp, with, say, 5-seconds before and 5-seconds after, and output a short video of 10-second clips of each animal/car detection.

But yep, you'd want the right wide-angle cameras and fly fairly dense tracks to cover the area - as EatRed pointed out, it's so much easier to scan a whole field by eye, than the narrow view of the video.
 
I'm guessing this will be the future of game counts. Makes sense...cheaper and safer and probably would be more accurate in the long run once programs are improved and lined out.
 
In thicker timber(where one has to look straight down) drones work just as well. There's not a huge difference in view at altitude with a drone when there is more open terrain.

I have a preprogrammed route that includes Waypoints, altitude, Points of Interest, camera action, drone orientation and speed.

I have flown the program over a 77 acre tract in more or less a square pattern and with a choice of 4K, 2.7K, HD1080P and lower resolution it was easy to see turkeys in the woods from 250-300 ft altitude with the live video downlink using an iPad mini 4.
 
Having a reasonably accurate animal count is crucial to game management and it seems to me if drones can provide that information in a more cost effective manner, they should stop least try it out.Rght now they only do fly overs every few years and conditions ( ie winter) change more quickly than that
 
eatredmeat157 said:
Much easier for human eyes (peripheral) to spot game at 100ft+
Vs watching the pixelated "tunnel" view from a monitor

I think you wouldn't get as high/accurate counts vs a helicopter
Click to expand...

Thats a load of bull####. We arent talking about a crummy radio shack drone and tube tv. The cameras are over 10M pixels and often are IR or IRNV. The quality is excellent, which is why they are banned for hunting use. They are an excellent choice to use as an alternative and you will see them used more in a lot of industries.
 
If the military can operate drones half a world away,surely they can be adapted to game counts...and likely at far lower cost than manned aircraft..the guy I was talking to is inundated with inquiries,ever since his drones were used in two separate incidences in one day to locate missing persons.Drones can be flown in places where you wouldn't send manned aircraft due to terrain...
 
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eatredmeat157 said:
Much easier for human eyes (peripheral) to spot game at 100ft+
Vs watching the pixelated "tunnel" view from a monitor

I think you wouldn't get as high/accurate counts vs a helicopter
Click to expand...

S1de8urnz said:
Thats a load of bull####. We arent talking about a crummy radio shack drone and tube tv. The cameras are over 10M pixels and often are IR or IRNV. The quality is excellent, which is why they are banned for hunting use. They are an excellent choice to use as an alternative and you will see them used more in a lot of industries.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly......total BS!!!!! We are not talking about rinky dinky drones picked up at the dollar store.................with all today's technology they will prob perform better than a human in a helicopter!!!! Give yer head a shake!
 
they can use drones in tandem with there current system. until either the drones prove they are as capable or more so. Or until drone tech gets more advanced and more accurate as time goes on
 
1duckslayer said:
My thoughts exactly......total BS!!!!! We are not talking about rinky dinky drones picked up at the dollar store.................with all today's technology they will prob perform better than a human in a helicopter!!!! Give yer head a shake!
Click to expand...

Exactly. We use them in open pit mines at work, they're completely automated after you give them the boundaries of the mine and they do their thing and count/calculate material stockpiles and survey, it's pretty crazy what tech can do. They use photogrammetry to measure faces and give accurate wall dimensions too.
 
thebaron said:
Exactly. We use them in open pit mines at work, they're completely automated after you give them the boundaries of the mine and they do their thing and count/calculate material stockpiles and survey, it's pretty crazy what tech can do. They use photogrammetry to measure faces and give accurate wall dimensions too.
Click to expand...

They have surprising range and on station time.

I have, with a spotter and chase atv, flown mine 3 miles out and back with a live 10Mbps live video downlink the complete way out and back at ~ 150 ft altitude and I get about 18 minutes flight time in -15C ambient. Station time/flight time improves up to about 20-21 minutes in better conditions. Max speed in good conditions is about 38 MPH/62 KPH.

20 minutes flight with a 1600 ft+ AGL capability and a 3 mile radius with a 10Mbps and 720P live video downlink and a 4K or down to just under 1080P video on an sd card is pretty good for a consumer drone.
 
relatively cheap (1500$) drones now offer programmable routes with 4k video and decent flight time, good for smaller areas. For larger areas there is no doubt in my mind the count could be made by drones with fixed wing with IFR + 4k camera, would definitely require licence but with radios you could go a long way. The cost would logically be significantly less.
 
Plus you can fly it to the 800 yd line and check out your target, let it hover there for 20 minutes while you shoot or set it there and let it video your shots and watch it on the live feed.
 
sulisa said:
Just thinking... who says the camera has to be visible spectrum, though? If it were, say, IR blooms, or a dual camera system, the operator could fast-forward, noting big red blobs, then go to the visible video, and check each indicated time to identify species. I would imagine it would even be do-able to have the IR video pass through an application that would do the scanning and detection for you - and produce a list of timestamps that had "something" on them. Pass that to a second app that would then take the visible camera video, and automatically crop each timestamp, with, say, 5-seconds before and 5-seconds after, and output a short video of 10-second clips of each animal/car detection.

But yep, you'd want the right wide-angle cameras and fly fairly dense tracks to cover the area - as EatRed pointed out, it's so much easier to scan a whole field by eye, than the narrow view of the video.
Click to expand...

I never imagined IR. With that secenario you opened my eyes. IR could easily be scanned and double checked. Thanks
 
1duckslayer said:
My thoughts exactly......total BS!!!!! We are not talking about rinky dinky drones picked up at the dollar store.................with all today's technology they will prob perform better than a human in a helicopter!!!! Give yer head a shake!
Click to expand...

Homestly even 1080P I don't think it stacks up against a human scanner in a helicopter. For now... But as it is in this day it just doesn't compare.
 
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