An Adaptive Autonomous Aerial System for Dynamic Field Animal Ecology Studies

This work focuses on the optimization of aerial system controls and the design of autonomous navigation models for dynamic field animal behavior studies. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can easily traverse remote terrain and quickly navigate around occlusions to collect imagery for animal ecology studies. Multiple UAVs, or a swarm, provide multiple views of group-living animals, providing richer insight into animal behaviors in the wild. However, animals are dynamic and un-predictable, requiring system control and autonomous navigation models capable of adapting to dynamic scenes. Here, I present my on-going work building such a system and corresponding autonomous navigation models, and detail future plans.