‘Wadi Drone’ to patrol the wild in the UAE

Dubai: A team of UAE-based drone designers hopes that their “Wadi Drone” will help local authorities monitor the country’s diverse flora and fauna in hard-to-reach desert and mountain areas.

Two members of the New York University Abu Dhabi team with the ‘Wadi Drone’ they made. — Supplied photo 

The drone is among the 15 national semifinal contestants to be unveiled in this week’s “UAE Drones for Good Awards”.

The team of four students from New York University Abu Dhabi, led by faculty advisor Matt Karau, hopes that the drone can help UAE authorities better track wildlife and fauna in remote areas of the country’s natural reserves.

The fixed-wing drone carries a small communications payload that wirelessly collects data from a network of ground-based measurement devices. The drone is currently being used to collect photographs of wildlife taken by motion-sensor cameras in Fujairah’s Wadi Wurayah National Park.

University sophomore Martin Slosarik, a 21-year old Slovak national, said the drone is designed to promote conservation efforts with minimal impact.

“Collaborations with our partners at the Emirates Wildlife Society and Wadi Wurayah National Park helped steer our development towards remote data collection in pristine regions, where deploying communications infrastructure would otherwise spoil the natural heritage,” he said. Slosarik added that the Wadi Drone collects large amounts of data without the dangers to personnel associated with traditional methods.

“The Wadi Drone serves the conservation efforts of the Emirates Wildlife Society both by increasing the rate at which photographic data of wildlife and potential poachers can be analysed by experts, and by reducing the human risk associated with the current method of hiking to retrieve photos from remote camera traps,” he said. 

Additionally, the drone would mean that local authorities no longer have to employ expensive helicopters to reach remote cameras in the summer months when it is too hot to trek.

Slosarik said that, regardless of the outcome, the NYU Abu Dhabi team is pleased to be a part of the UAE Drones for Good Awards.

“It has been a great honour to participate,” he said. “In our view, the greatest outcome of the competition will not be the handful of winning ideas but the fact that dozens of individuals have committed months to develop innovative solutions that envision a world in which drones and humans harmoniously coexist.

Other UAE-based semi-finalists include drones designed to monitor vegetation and power grids, transport medical supplies, assist in civil defence, fire and rescue missions, inspect construction sites and report parking violators.

The national and international winners of the UAE Drones for Good Awards will be announced on Friday and Saturday at a ceremony in Internet City, following live demonstrations before a panel of international judges.

— bernd@khaleejtimes.com