Project Profile

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Developing standard procedures for using small Unoccupied Aircraft Systems to monitor wildlife in airport environments.

Researchers: Jared Elmore, Landon Jones, Emma Schultz, Kristine Evans (CoPI) along with Ray Iglay (PI) and Sathish Samiappan (CoPI)

Location: Mississippi State University

Project Narrative

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Wildlife strikes with aircraft are dangerous for animals and humans and can be costly to the airline industry. Monitoring wildlife on airports provides valuable information for aircraft-wildlife strike mitigation but poses several challenges including human bias, cumbersome survey areas, and costs. Using small Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (sUAS) to survey or monitor wildlife could address some of these challenges, as they allow users to easily and safely access and cover expansive areas. These systems could result in reduced labor costs and count biases and may be used for a variety of objectives. Our project attempts to identify and develop best practices for monitoring wildlife on airports from data collection through image processing among the following objectives:

1. Developing selection criteria and rankings for sUAS platforms and sensors;
2. Conducting experiments to assess sUAS and sensors capacity for monitoring birds and mammals relative to detection bias, flight parameters, and environmental conditions;
3. Developing approaches for accurate assessments of wildlife hazards on airports;
4. Calibrating UAS and sensor parameters to standardize image collection across land covers;
5. Assisting with the implementation of a sUAS image repository for focal species hazardous to aircraft; and,
6. Assisting with development of image analysis tools such as deep neural networks for automatic animal recognition and abundance estimation.

Partners: United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center Ohio Field Station, Federal Aviation Administration

Sponsors: United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center Ohio Field Station, Federal Aviation Administration

Project Publications

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• Elmore, J. A., M. F. Curran, K. O. Evans, S. Samiappan, M. Zhou, M. B. Pfeiffer, B. F. Blackwell, R. B. Iglay. 2021. Evidence that small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) can be used to monitor terrestrial animals: a systematic map protocol. Environmental Evidence. 10(1):1-6. DOI: 10.1186/s13750-021-00228-w.
• Zhou, M., J. A. Elmore, S. Samiappan, R. Iglay, K. Evans, M. B. Pfeiffer, B. Blackwell. 2021. Improving animal monitoring using small, unmanned aircraft systems. Sensors. 21:5697. DOI:10.3390/s21175697

Project Photos

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