'Predator' Vision Drones Get AI to Spot Poachers

The thermal infrared camera imagery taken by a drone operated by the Air Shepherd conservation group during a field demonstration. Credit: Air Shepherd Poachers illegally hunting elephants and rhinoceroses under the supposed cover of darkness may soon find themselves being tracked by "Predator" vision drones armed with artificial intelligence. The new AI system that enables surveillance drones to automatically detect both humans and animals could help conservation experts and rangers protect endangered wildlife starting in 2018. A wildlife conservation group called Air Shepherd has already tested the AI system in a field demonstration and hopes to eventually expand such operations to various national parks in Africa. Like the alien hunters from the "Predator" science fiction films, Air Shepherd's drones use thermal infrared vision to detect the heat coming from warm objects such as human or animal bodies. The AI system developed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon, the University of Southern California and Microsoft gives such drones the added capability to identify potential poachers and alert park rangers or other law enforcement agents. "Our main goal was to assist Air Shepherd in unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) operations and reduce the human effort needed to monitor the UAV cameras at night," says Fei Fang, an assistant professor at the Institute for Software Research at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "In the future, we also want to automatically adjust the flight route of the UAV to automatically track the poachers."