Projet WildDrone (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Doctoral Networks
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The aim of WildDrone is to push wildlife conservation practices into the 21st century. The need for effective, cost-efficient conservation practices are greater than ever as we currently face the greatest loss of global biodiversity in history. Present conservation practices are typically very labour intensive, costly, and time-consuming. Collected data is often inaccurate or incomplete. However, recent advances in drone technology have shown that this technology has great potential as a practical tool for conservationists and that it could potentially revolutionize our efforts in nature conservation. Nevertheless, drone technology is still a developing field and many obstacles stand in the way of us harvesting the benefits of this emerging technology. To fully achieve its promising potential in this new domain we will need to invent more robust and predictable robotic technologies, including effective and automated means of gathering and interpreting ecological and behavioural data. WildDrone will address these challenges by joining the scientific areas of aerial robotics, computer vision, and wildlife ecology. The network proposes to develop new autonomous drone technology, expand current computer vision capabilities, and combine these advances to create practical tools for visual inspection and monitoring of wildlife populations. This drone-based inspection will provide conservationists with crucial knowledge of animal health, behaviour, and numbers. These challenges will be solved by 13 PhDs (three self-funded). An interdisciplinary research training programme has been designed to educate a new generation of PhDs and provide them with a unique skill set enabling them to tackle the great challenges we must solve collectively, if we are to reverse the decline of global biodiversity. This program will raise the level of excellence in doctoral programs and simultaneously enhance the career perspectives of the PhDs in both academia and industry.

Mots clés : drones, autonomous systems, uas, computer vision, nature conservation, animal behavior, human wildlife conflict

Participants :
- Kbr wyle services, llc (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Bristol (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Danish Agriculture and Food Council (Danemark) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
- Nationalparkfond vadehavet (Danemark) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 0.0 €
- Avy bv (Pays-Bas) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 274370.4 €
- Université du Danemark du Sud (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 1054497.57 €
- Bristol, clifton and west of england zoological society limited (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université Kenyatta (Kenya) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Constance (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- British Broadcasting Corporation (United Kingdom) (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 0.0 €
- Ol pejeta conservancy limited (Kenya) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
- Environmental Protection Agency (Danemark) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 0.0 €
- Wageningen University & Research (Pays-Bas) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 274370.4 €
- World Wide Fund for Nature (Suisse) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
- Fondazione Bruno Kessler (Italie) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 259437.6 €
- Université de Münster (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 260539.2 €
- École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (Suisse) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Société Max-Planck pour le développement des sciences (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 521078.4 €
- Kuzikus african safaris pty ltd (Namibie) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €