Embry-Riddle drone targets whale poachers in Pacific
An interesting way for US students to avoid all that trouble with COA’s and the FAA. Do your flying outside of the USA and do some good at the same time.
BY DEBORAH CIRCELLI, EDUCATION WRITER
DAYTONA BEACH — Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students and professors have designed a drone that will help keep poachers from killing sharks and whales near Ecuador.
The unmanned aerial vehicle will be used to prevent poaching in the Pacific Ocean around the Galapagos Islands, an area rich in marine life.
The goal is eventually to have a fleet of about 30 such aircraft in a few years to monitor that area, according to Charlie Reinholtz, Embry-Riddle professor/chairman of the department of mechanical engineering and faculty project leader.
Embry-Riddle has been working for the past year and half on the project, collaborating with a group of faculty and students at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador, which has a research station in the Galapagos.
The project is also being done in conjunction with the Galapagos National Park.
Testing around the Galapagos Islands of the unmanned plane that has been built by the team in Ecuador will begin this summer. Other testing on the video systems and auto-pilot capabilities have been conducted locally on smaller aircraft.
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