Design and Modeling of Quadcopter for Elephant Monitoring Using Aerial Image Processing Approach

Abstract

Human elephant conflict is a major problem in villages located near the forests. They are the huge threat to life and property of the dwellers. Till now, many traditional methods are employed to monitor the elephants along with some technologies are also deployed. One such is the camera, it is not efficient to use permanent cameras since the placement of cameras is critical. We propose an alternate way using quad copters for surveillance of elephants using cameras, thanks to their agility and size. It is propelled by four high rpm motors attached to the end of four arms with adjacent arms perpendicular to each other. The motion of the drone is controlled by varying the speed of individual motors. The quad copter is deployed for the surveillance of elephants at a height of 100–300 m in a 2 km span depending on the flora characteristics and terrain in elephant prone regions of the forest. The image captured from the top view is transmitted to the receiver and is processed by converting into HSV and extracting the hue model using structural element function. BLOB analysis is performed to detect the presence of elephants. An early warning is sent which allows the forest executives to alert the local people and to take necessary actions to divert the elephants.