Drones Take off

"As the Internet, drones emerged in the field military and there have stayed in that field for years. Now these drones have democratized and popularized in countless fields, from science and film, through real estate or rescue operations in natural disasters."

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Researchers at the Doñana Biological Station CSIC use SUASs to reproduce the flight paths of birds

A study by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has used small unmanned aerial systems (SUASs) to reproduce the flight paths of birds of prey and get environmental information of their hunting areas. One of the main limitations of biotelemetry (remote measurement of physiological, behavioral or environmental data) of wild birds is the small size and weight of most species. Therefore, the limited information available so far is biased towards larger birds. In this paper, published in PLoS ONE journal, we describe the combined use of light weight GPS data-loggers and environmental information gathered by unmanned aerial systems.

The study was performed using as a model species the Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni), one of the smallest raptors of Europe. It took place in the newly established colony on the roof of the headquarters of the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC) in Seville. The birds, marked with a 5 grams GPS data-logger are wild and move freely, with the particularity that they nest in facilities that were built expressly for them in an urban environment. After downloading the geographic coordinates recorded by the GPS of the places visited by kestrels in the vicinity of Seville, the SUASs were programmed to reproduce the flights carried out by the birds. During the flight of the aircraft, an onboard camera took high-resolution digital photos of the areas overflown. This methodology allows to extract environmental information in nearly real time, showing that SUASs are a useful tool for a wide variety of wildlife studies. The study was funded by the Junta de Andalucia Excellence Projects AEROMAB (P07-RNM- 03246) and Horus (P09-RNM-04588) and by the European Commission through the project PLANET (7th EC FP Grant Agreement 257,649). A. Rodríguez, J.J. Negro, M. Mulero, C. Rodríguez, J. Henández-Pliego, J. Bustamante. The eye in the sky: combined used of unmanned aerial systems and GPS data-loggers for ecological research and conservation of small birds. PLoS ONE http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0050336 Download .pdf: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050336

Report about aeromab project, news agency "Historias de Luz"

On Wednesday May 21st, the news agency "Historias de luz", spend the day with us to know about the technical characteristics and different aplications of the UAVs we use in project Aeromab.

The video can be downloaded here

This video has Creative Commons licence, so
it can be used if the original producer is credited.

Over the "geese hill"

Cerro de los Ánsares / Over the "geese hill" from eb7dln on Vimeo.

During the months of December, January and February we made ​​a total of 23 flights on the "Cerro de los Ansares" located in the south of the Doñana Natural Area. Greylag geese, which feed mostly on the roots of an aquatic plant of the marshes called castañuela, concentrate every sunrise in the dunes to ingest sand to grind food and facilitate digestion.
The aim of these overflights was the location of the flocks of geese to study the use they make of the dune.

Lagun "El Sopetón" Test HD

Aeromab participated in the I international Red UAS conference.

More than 100 experts, researchers and scientific in the field of UAS, met from late november to early december in Seville. In the I international Red UAS conference about research, development and education in unmanned aerial systems.

We submitted this poster to the conference:

The Montagu´s Harrier (Circus pygarus) is a migratory raptor that breeds in colonies in cereal crops. Since 1950 the species has declined dramatically. Tha main cause of mortality in spain is the crushing of eggs and chicks by harvesters, they have been estimated in some areas of being up to 90%.

Actually, nests are located by technicians on foot and farmers are informed of their locations to avoid its destruction. This takes much time,effort and can guide predator to the nests.

We researched the use of small UAS to locate nest while avoiding these problems. The results where: is possible to locate nests with flights 70m above ground levels. Also, the animals show no adverse reactions to the plane and results can be obtained in much less time.

Video Aeromab

Introducing Aeromab Proyect from eb7dln on Vimeo.