WildDrone recently partnered with the International Micro Air Vehicles (IMAV) Conference, held in Bristol from September 16th to 20th, 2024.
The conference was organized by WildDrone partner Tom Richardson and his team from Bristol University, who ensured the event’s great success. Furthermore, the organizing team included WildDrone partners from Bruno Kessler Foundation and University of Southern Denmark.
Several of our doctoral candidates participated in the conference. Vandita Shukla (DC9), Kilian Meier (DC13), and Edouard Rolland (DC6) had the opportunity to present their papers. Additionally, Ulrik Pagh Schultz Lundquist held a keynote talk on the WildDrone project’s efforts to revolutionize wildlife conservation.
Flying for Nature Conservation
A key highlight of the IMAV event was the 3-day indoor and outdoor drone flying competition, which this year focused on a ‘Nature Conservation’ theme developed in collaboration with WildDrone. WildDrone coordinator Ulrik Pagh Schultz Lundquist and supervisor Kjeld Jensen served as judges for the flying competitions, where several of our doctoral candidates also participated.
The indoor competition took place at the renowned Bristol Robotics Laboratory. Participants faced challenges such as automatic take-off to capture images of wildlife screens, navigating through gates, sample collection, and landing on designated areas.
For the outdoor competition at Woodspring Wing model-flying club, participants developed drones to autonomously search for and count animals, capturing images using a list of waypoints for navigation.
The event attracted over 150 participants from around the globe, fostering innovation and collaboration among the teams. We are thrilled to see the community engaging with nature conservation challenges.
