How Flying Robots Might Prevent Illegal Deforestation
MEC1281
Design Summary & Analysis
Draft #4
By: Nur Sabryna
8 April 2021
In the article “How Flying Robots Might Prevent Deforestation”, (2012) mentioned the purpose, functionality and features of quadrotors, acting as a solution to counter the unlawful environmental activities in the rainforest.
According to deputy dean of University of Pennsylvania and the lead researcher of this quadrotor project, Vijay Kumar, these intelligent “tiny, silent guardians of the rainforest” were programmed to maneuver independently and gather live documentation of the environment, providing advanced feedback to illegal deforestation. On top of their miniature size, these flying robots were equipped with “little rotor blades'' for easy drifting into a controlled flight path. Furthermore, they were capable of mapping out the environment using their onboard camera, laser rangefinder and laser scanner. Quadrotors were also programmed to accelerate at a rate of 600 times a second with the built-in processor, yielding a quicker reaction to any difference in their surroundings. According to Peck, a quadrotor possessed great agility, stability and control to navigate through the rainforest with respect to these features. The quadrotors' indirect connection within one another was not a concern for them to successfully coordinate through a task.
Although Peck mentioned that quadrotors were valuable bots which guards the rainforest from deforestation, there is insufficient evidence in the article regarding the quadrotors' ability to work as a team in stopping illegal activities in the rainforest.
Firstly, the article did not explain how the quadrotors were able to team up together to stop illegal crimes in the rainforest. In the TED talk, Kumar mentioned how the robots could "autonomously build cubic structures" with respect to their programmed algorithm. Assembly of simple cubic structures is done by automatically translating structure blueprint through the use of unique constraints of aerial grasping. Additionally, quadrotors were accurate in maintaining their group formations, ranging from a planar to a three-dimensional formation. However, this information was not sufficient in justifying how the bots' could function as a group to stop the unlawful acts in the rainforest. Comparing the quadrotors' application with the Indian Army Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles, the Indian Army specifically showcased how its drones autonomously act together in a warfare environment, where "weapons deployed to accomplish a shared objective" would be altered as they went ahead into an enemy territory (Desk, 2021). Unfortunately, in the case mentioned by Peck, there was still no information on how the team of quadrotors could work together to stop the crimes in the rainforest.
Secondly, quadrotors were less agile when they were in a group. According to Kumar in his TED talk, these flying robots were able to increase their payload-carrying capacity when they were in a group formation. However, the downside of this was that inertia essentially escalates with added payloads, hence producing less angular acceleration while moving. "Flight time is guaranteed to be reduced when it's carrying extra weight" and movements would be restricted as the "upward thrust is affected" (Hayley, 2016). Eventually, this would make the quadrotors less efficient in their relaying of the carried product from one place to another. This would lead to a gap on how the quadrotors could work as a team in the context of the rainforest.
Lastly, quadrotors were ineffective of monitoring the rainforest at night even though they were called "guardians of the rainforest". Even if they could detect illegal activities as a team in the rainforest, they did not have the proper functions or features to be efficient during their patrol at night. The designers should consider implementing additional features such as thermographic cameras or microphones during the bots' night patrol. According to Judd (2018), thermographic cameras provide "high-contrast thermal imagery for improved detection", making them a "critical tool" in searching any persons of interest especially when there is limited visibility. Additionally, microphones could be used to listen for any suspicious foreign sounds in the rainforest. Since quadrotors could effectively be functioning as a group during night time, the efficiency of their response in detecting illegal activities would be maximised.
In conclusion, the quadrotor has high potential in keeping the rainforest safe from illegal deforestation through its surveillance. However, more considerations should be focused on the quadrotors' design and its application in the rainforest such as how they could act against the threats as a team.
References:
Desk, W. (2021, January 15). Why Indian Army's Drone Swarm Demo is Milestone in 'Disruption in Warfare'. https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2021/01/15/why-indian-army-drone-swarm-demo-is-milestone-in-disruption-in-warfare.html
Hayley. (2016, June 7) Understanding Drone Payloads. https://www.coptrz.com/understanding-drone-payloads/
Judd, K. (2018, June) Thermal Camera-Equipped UAVs Spot Hard-to-Find Subjects. https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Thermal_Camera-Equipped_UAVs_Spot_Hard-to-Find/a63435
Kumar, V. (n.d) Transcript of "robots that fly ... and cooperate". https://www.ted.com/talks/vijay_kumar_robots_that_fly_and_cooperate/transcript
Peck, M. (2012) How Flying Robots Might Prevent Deforestation. https://mashable.com/2012/03/20/flying-robots-deforestation/
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