DRONES

[AL Pitman]

With all of the new found uses such as agriculture ect for these unmanned arieal survailance vehicles could it be possible to utilise this technology to cover greater tracts of a proposed research area In the pursuit of Yowie based evedence .

Unlike trail cams I would think that our hairy friends would not be accustomed at avoiding this type of watch dog tool , I realise the current cost involved would be immediately inhibitive but as supply meets the demand I am sure that this will come down in the near future .

Perhaps a university type study group endowed with this type of technology could be purswaded to come on board ? Any thoughts ?

[Yowie88]

There was a drone being used to film the Blue Mountains bush fires

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/201 ... ed-lithgow

You can guess what I was thinking while watching the vid lol.

[Goz]

Good idea sneak up on them from the air.

Multi-rotor drones would probably not be suitable for sneaking up on the critters, but a powered glider type aircraft would be what you would need so you could gain altitude then cut the motor and stay on station for a while by using thermals or slope. I would imagine stealth and being able to stay on station for extended periods of time are what your main requirements would be for this sort of project.

Built with readily available off the shelf hobby equipment you could get 2 to 3 km out from the base station and would probably cost around the $500 mark depending on the type of camera you want to carry aloft. Ideally you would need a 2 people to operate the drone a pilot and a camera operator.

[AL Pitman]

GOZ

I definitely think you are the right track although I am not sure how put off by the associated noise that the intended subjects would be as it would certainly be something new and in addition , especially for the ones that live in close proximity to us less hairy creatures the sound of aircraft overhead would probably not be so disconcerting .

I think I remember a you tube vid from a few years ago that was taken from a helicopter of a Bigfoot caught in the open , traversing a farming type paddock the obvious racket from a large aircraft most certainly would raise alarm but hopefully the type of vehicle that I propose may at first trigger curiosity and allow enough time to secure a decent bit of photographic evidence .

I for one have no idea how to get the ball rolling on this so if any other forum members are more educated in this area then all advice would be greatly appreciated .

[Yowie88]

Start by look at these sites to get a general feel.

DIY site
http://diydrones.com/

Example of uses
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/ext ... -wildlife/

Drone pics
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=came ... 80&bih=580

Indicative price - Quadcopter US$500
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DJI-Phantom- ... 4acb692c0b

[Smokeyr67]

An Aerostat would solve the noise problem.

[AL Pitman]

I recently purchased a small helicopter ( toy , not ) with the view of gaining some operational skills with these little platforms , well !!!! One small helicopter is now in about 10,000 pieces bahaha I hear you guys say although my wallet is not laughing so much !

Does anybody around here have the required skills to operate one of these little terrors ????

[NotSoBigFoot]

Al - from what I've seen - a single person can have the skills to operate the drone itself, however military and surveillance drones are always a 2 man job, with one person operating the flying of the drone and the 2nd operating the camera remotely. Both operators need to communicate as one as the camera operator is generally viewing a screen via a screen within some sort of a hood for lack of a better word to prevent any glare and communicates verbally with the pilot... Being able to operate a emote control plane or helicopter is a world away from being able to pilot a drone... especially also considering that they operate like harrier jump jets with hover and forward propelled motion as opposed to gyroscopic motion as per a helicopter... Not telling you what to do - just throwing in a couple of observations that may need to be considered...

Cheers,

Stu

[iangordon]

http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/Proje ... ement.aspx