Rhino Drone
The Rhino Drone project was born from a concept to get cost effective, unmanned aircraft into the air to assist with tracking down the Rhino Poachers.
Studying animals from the air is not a new concept and it works well, but it is very expensive!
South Africa is loosing more than 400 Rhino's per year and I want to make a difference. Help me hunt a Rhino Poacher!
What We Need & What You Get
The aim of the Rhino Drone project is to investigate and build a high-fidelity prototype of advanced; low cost, high-impact and/or technologically advanced equipment and study the viability of using these to create remote controlled aircraft intended for nature conservation.
This is phase one and we need to gauge the support we can get for this project, so we will list all donators on our project web site, www.rhinodrone.co.za.
All funds raise will be used for this project, if this project is stopped, for whatever reason, all funds will be donated to the Makanyane Volunteers www.makanyane.org.za.
Once our initiall development is done in phase one and we move into phase two, we will start offering T-Shirts and memorabilia showing that you were a part of this initative. This is phase one, we don't have capacitiy to offer this just yet.
Rhino Drone Project Break Down
Phase One
The first phase actually involves something I have been doing for a few months now; it is taking the research I've done and putting it into action.
Phase one is raising funds to create a high fidelity prototype of the concept.
This prototype will be flown in controlled environments and monitored to ensure the maximum effectiveness in the field... we will then take it to the bush and fly it to its extremes and then push it to its limits.
Phase Two
The next phase is to take the base unit and add the fancy video technology to it. Here we will experiment with various techniques which will allow us to remotely fly (out of sight and at night) and provide alternative view points for trackers and parks board officials.
We will also investigate recording technologies for the out puts, ensuring that all video streams can not only be monitored onsite, but post flight too!
Phase Three
To take lessons learnt from Phase one & two and improve on the prototype.
We aim to improve the following in this phase:
1. Distance for video feeds (streaming video)
2. Flight Duration (time in the air)
3. Stability of Aircraft (some really fancy equipment to be investigated)
The Impact
Over 430 Rhino have been poached this year, that is more than last year's number of Rhino have already been poached and the year is not finished yet!
I love spending time with the volunteer group Makanyane, which I've been a member since 2005, were we help maintain the Pilanesburg Reserve... a very special piece of Africa with a wide diversity of animals.
I want to make a difference, I want to build a cost effective tool to be used initially for assisting with protecting the Rhino, and in the future to be used for nature conservation.
