title: Towards an Autonomous Vision-Based Unmanned Aerial System against Wildlife Poachers.
abstract: Poaching is an illegal activity that remains out of control in many countries. Based on the 2014 report of the United Nations and Interpol, the illegal trade of global wildlife and natural resources amounts to nearly $ 213 billion every year, which is even helping to fund armed conflicts. Poaching activities around the world are further pushing many animal species on the brink of extinction. Unfortunately, the traditional methods to fight against poachers are not enough, hence the new demands for more efficient approaches. In this context, the use of new technologies on sensors and algorithms, as well as aerial platforms is crucial to face the high increase of poaching activities in the last few years. Our work is focused on the use of vision sensors on UAVs for the detection and tracking of animals and poachers, as well as the use of such sensors to control quadrotors during autonomous vehicle following and autonomous landing.
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, SnT - University of Luxembourg, 4 Rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. miguel.olivaresmendez@uni.lu.
authors.forename: Miguel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Olivares-Mendez
authors.affiliation: Centre for Automation and Robotics (CAR), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM-CSIC), Calle de José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain. fu.changhong@upm.es.
authors.forename: Changhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, SnT - University of Luxembourg, 4 Rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. ludivig@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ludivig
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, SnT - University of Luxembourg, 4 Rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. tegawende.bissyande@uni.lu.
authors.forename: Tegawendé F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Bissyandé
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, SnT - University of Luxembourg, 4 Rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. somasundar.kannan@uni.lu.
authors.forename: Somasundar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kannan
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, SnT - University of Luxembourg, 4 Rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. maciej.zurad@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zurad
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, SnT - University of Luxembourg, 4 Rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. arun.annaiyan@uni.lu.
authors.forename: Arun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Annaiyan
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, SnT - University of Luxembourg, 4 Rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. holger.voos@uni.lu.
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Voos
authors.affiliation: Centre for Automation and Robotics (CAR), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM-CSIC), Calle de José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain. pascual.campoy@upm.es.
authors.forename: Pascual
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Campoy
keywords: animal tracking; anti-poaching; autonomous landing; autonomous navigation; computer vision; face detection; object following; unmanned aerial vehicles; vision-based control